Issue 812

Arts News

Love in the Time of Victoria

Some of the most dramatic paintings from late 19th century Britain are brought together in the exhibition Love & Death, now on show at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney.

As the title suggests, the exhibition concentrates on the Victorian celebration of love, both earthly and divine, as well as the Victorian reverence for death - particularly the 'good death' and the promise of loving reunions in the afterlife.


Tissot, The Widower	*Fletcher, Evicted (detail)*

Nearly 70 paintings from public and private collections in Australia and New Zealand are included in the exhibition, the majority of which were drawn from classical mythology and literature, ancient and modern history, contemporary life and morals.

Depicted are popular stories that fascinated people in Victorian times - the death of lovers like Shakespeare's Juliet and the legendary Queen Cleopatra of Egypt, the myth of Helen of Troy and the tale of the sorceress Circe who, in a envious rage, turned a rival into a hideous sea monster.

Victorian art went through a period of great popularity, but by the mid 20th century and the emergence of modernism, Victorian paintings became almost ridiculed.

Today however, more than a century after the death of Queen Victoria, there is a worldwide revival of interest in the art that flourished during her reign.

'Victorian art combined the seductiveness of the state, the solemnity of the liturgy, the urgency of political and social activism and the technical brilliance more usually associated with contemporary English poets like Alfred, Lord Tennyson - qualities which make it both alluring and provocative to today's public,' Love & Death's curator, Angus Trumble, said.

The exhibition is on show until May 12. The gallery is open 10am-5pm, seven days a week (excluding Easter public holidays).