This remarkable exhibition comprises more than 150 Victorian photographs, some extremely rare and many being shown for the first time.  It has been selected from the collection of about 4,500 images amassed by the late Jeremy Maas and recently acquired by Rob Dickins CBE for presentation to the Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey, of which he is a Trustee.  This selection brings us face to face not only with such famous Victorian artists as William Powell Frith, George Frederic Watts, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, Frederic Lord Leighton, John Everett Millais, William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but also with artists’ homes and studios, models, wives and families.  John Ruskin is also well represented, through some celebrated images.

Politicians, scientists, writers and thinkers are also here, including Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Darwin, Thomas Carlyle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens and George Eliot, while images of royalty include a rare signed photograph of Queen Victoria.  Many of the important photographic studios of the day are represented, alongside the famous individual photographers Frederick Hollyer, Julia Margaret Cameron and Lewis Carroll.

On 28 February 1862, the Photographic News observed: ‘Treasures such as these we shall be able to hand down to our posterity, for there is little doubt that photographs of the present day will remain perfect, if carefully preserved, for generations’.  This exhibition will fascinate all those with an interest in the Victorian period and in the people who made it great.

Ellen Terry as Juliet	G.F. Watts	The Misses Dene

Images (c) The Watts Gallery

Catalogues are available for many of our exhibitions - see our Publications List for details.

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