Kate Bunce, Musica, ca. 1895–97. Oil on canvas, 40 3/16 x 30 3/16 x 1 3/4 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1897P17). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

An unprecedented selection of paintings, works on paper, and decorative arts—many never shown outside the UK—by three generations of revolutionary British artists and designers. 

On view now through January 6, 2019, at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and then traveling to 7 other U.S. museums through 2021.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, three generations of young, rebellious artists and designers revolutionized the visual arts in Britain, engaging with and challenging the new industrial world around them. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Morris and his associates, and the champions of the Arts & Crafts Movement offered a radical artistic and social vision that found inspiration in the pre-industrial past and came to decisively influence visual culture in Britain and beyond. Drawn from the outstanding collection of the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Victorian Radicals will, for the first time, bring together paintings, works on paper, and decorative arts—many never shown outside the UK—to illuminate this most dynamic period of British art in an exhibition of unparalleled historical and visual richness.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpine , 1882. Oil on canvas, 39 9/16 x 34 3/16 x 2 3/16 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1927P7). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

Through approximately 145 objects by pioneering artists including Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Elizabeth Siddall, among others, Victorian Radicals will represent the spectrum of avant-garde practices of the Victorian period, emphasizing the response of Britain’s first modern art movements to unfettered industrialization. These artists’ attention to detail, use of vibrant colors, and engagement with both literary themes and contemporary life will be illustrated through a selection of paintings, drawings, and watercolors presented alongside superb examples of decorative art.

Caring for the largest Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world and with extraordinarily rich holdings of Victorian fine and decorative art, Birmingham Museums Trust is uniquely positioned to tell the story of the Pre-Raphaelites and other foundational artistic movements of the modern era.

Henry Wallis, Chatterton (The Death of Chatterton), 1855 - 1856. Oil on mahogany panel, 6 13/16 x 9 15/16 (unframed) and 13 5/16 x 1 5/6 in. (framed), Birmingham Museums Trust (1918P43). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

The exhibition will explore the ideas that preoccupied artists and critics at the time—the relationship between art and nature; questions of class and gender identity; the value of the handmade versus machine production; and the search for beauty in an age of industry—issues that remain relevant and actively debated today.

Victorian Radicals will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with contributions from the exhibition’s curatorial team, who will present new scholarship on Birmingham’s collection and its wider contexts.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Design for the “Moxon Tennyson”: The Palace of Art (St. Cecilia), 1856–57. Pen and black and brown ink on paper, 3 7/8 x 3 1/4 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1904P235). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

Design by Edward Burne-Jones, made by Morris & Co, Stained Glass Panel - St Mark the Evangelist, design 1873, this pane, 1883. Glass and lead on wooden frame, 57 15/16 x 25 3/16 x 1 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1927M1016). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

Ford Madox Brown, Pretty Baa-Lambs, 1851-59. Oil on wood panel, 24 x 30 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1956P9). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

William De Morgan, Wall tile, 1880-90. Earthenware painted in colors and lustres, 6 x 6 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1981M118). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

 George Frampton, The Christabel Necklace, 1893. Silvergilt, painted enamel, pearls, opals, Diameter of main pendant 2 15/16 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1986M3). © Birmingham Museums Trust.

 Designed by John Hardman Powell, made by John Hardman & Co, Claret Jug, 1861-62. Silver, parcel-gilt, garnets, 14 15/16 x 3 3/4 in., Birmingham Museums Trust (1198M36). © Birmingham Museums Trust.