Last week I was fortunate to attend the opening of ‘The Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite Designs, Studies and Watercolours’ at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, curated by Colin Cruise. The exhibition was opened with a short speech from Martin Mullaney, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture, reminding us of the significance of the arts in these straitened times. As usual at such events, I only managed a brief look at the exhibition and will be returning for more, but I was impressed. I really like drawings anyway – whether they are detailed drawings intended to be the finished piece, or whether they are sketches for future paintings, they give a different insight into the skill of the artist. BMAG’s website gives a taster:

“The Poetry of Drawing includes works by all the leading figures of the movement, including the original Brotherhood, their mentor John Ruskin, Elizabeth Siddal, and the ‘second generation’ of Pre-Raphaelites including Edward Burne-Jones, Frederick Sandys and Simeon Solomon. It also displays work by later artists influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, such as Aubrey Beardsley. There will be a rare chance to compare textiles, stained glass and ceramics by designers such as William Morris, William de Morgan and Florence Camm with their original working drawings, and the opportunity to see watercolours and drawings never exhibited before, including examples by Rossetti, Arthur Hughes and Burne-Jones.”