The Poetry of Drawing

The Pre-Raphaelites were the mid-19th century’s passionate and fiery rebels with a cause. This Brotherhood of radical young artists banded together in London in 1848 and sparked a revolution in British art. The creative genius of these friends is celebrated in the major exhibition The Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite Designs, Studies & Watercolours at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the accompanying book Pre-Raphaelite Drawing, published this January.

The display is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite watercolours and drawings ever staged – reuniting famous paintings and their preparatory works to provide a unique and fascinating insight into the Brotherhood’s creative processes. The exhibition also includes the first public display of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s brooding Mnemosyne, which has been in a private collection since the artist’s death in 1882 (and also graces the jacket of our accompanying book ‘Pre-Raphaelite Drawing’)

This stunning exhibition is open until the 15th May so catch it while you can! Visit the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery website for further details and booking.

Further afield? The Poetry of Drawing will subsequently tour to The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia from the 17th June to the 4th September and you can now also browse, save and share over 3,000 works using BMAG’s free Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource.

Photography by Tom Heaven of the BMAG Picture Library