Manchester

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'Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision' at Manchester Art Gallery

Brighten up your winter with this exciting new show of the Pre-Raphaelite artist at Manchester Art Gallery

Stand in any public gallery in Manchester and chances are you’ll be able to spot a Victorian masterpiece hanging seductively on the wall. Thanks to its textiles and shipping trade (and all those self-made merchants happy to splash their cash on artwork), the north west is home to some of the world’s finest collections of nineteenth-century art.

Manchester Art Gallery has just upped the ante, however, with its Holman Hunt retrospective. This is the first such exhibition of William Holman Hunt in over 40 years, and traces the life and times of this founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The show features around 30 of Holman Hunt’s detailed and allegorical paintings, including ‘The Awakening Conscience’ and ‘The Scapegoat’.

Holman Hunt was influenced by his Christian beliefs, and spent long periods in Jerusalem, using local models, costume and the Middle Eastern landscape as inspiration for paintings that he hoped would form historically accurate depictions of Biblical scenes. The centrepiece of this exhibition is ‘The Light of the World’, a religious painting that is Holman Hunt’s most famous. Hugely popular in Victorian England, the work went on to tour the British Empire. Reports estimate that around 7 million people saw the painting during its globetrotting travels, which has to make it one of the most-viewed painting in the world.  
Holman-Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, M2 3JL (235 8888/www.manchestergalleries.org). Until January 11 2009. 10am-5pm Tue-Sun; free.

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