Lecture Series at NGV | The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Walter Howell DEVERELL The grey parrot (c. 1852-1853)  oil on canvas 53.5 x 35.2 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Felton Bequest, 1913 569-2

Walter Howell DEVERELL, The grey parrot (c. 1852-1853), oil on canvas, 53.5 x 35.2 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Felton Bequest, 1913, 569-2

The NGV is running a lecture series exploring the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as part of their current exhibition Medieval Moderns: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Sat 16 MayLaurie Benson, Curator, International Art ‘The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in the National Gallery of Victoria’
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are widely recognised as a the most dynamic group of artists to ever work in Britain. They radically shifted the goal-posts of the British art world, changing it forever. The NGV’s holdings of works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are world renowned. The Gallery has been consistently acquiring these works since the 1880s until today. Medieval Moderns is the first comprehensive exhibition of the NGV’s Pre Raphaelites for more than forty years and this talk will focus on the collecting of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood by the NGV.
Sat 23 May: Dr Vivien Gaston, The University of Melbourne Fantasy and Fidelity: Portraits by the Pre-Raphaelites’Pre-Raphelite portraits combined fantasy with unprecedented fidelity to nature.  Closely observed sitters, often friends, family or lovers of the artist, were transformed into unearthly paradigms of beauty and spirit. This lecture will explore whether this merging of identities was a distortion of reality or provided new insight into the portrait subject.
Sat 30 May: Associate Professor Alison Inglis, The University of Melbourne Beyond the Brotherhood: John Millais’s Diana Vernon (1880)’
At its inception, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) strove to convey messages of artistic renewal and moral reform.  This lecture explores the development of their practice, focusing on the work of John Millais.  One of the most gifted of the original Brotherhood, Millais’ career is sometimes presented in terms of a ‘decline’ – from the early promise of his PRB years, with its avant-garde experimentation, to the popular success of his later academic work, which was technically proficient but artistically mediocre. This lecture will challenge this negative perception by analysing one of his late ‘fancy portraits’ in the NGV‘s collection: Diana Vernon (1880).All lectures run from 2pm–3pm
Venue: NGV International, Ground Level, Clemenger BBDO Auditorium, Tickets
Booking online here Cost $16 M / $20 A / $18 C (per lecture) | $44 M / $55 A / $50 C (per series)