Pre-Raphaelites, Tate Britain and us.

We were delighted to be given two free tickets plus £100 travelling expenses by Tate Britain and Etsy on the basis of the pewter work that we do which they, and us, see as being part of the Arts & Crafts tradition.

We made our visit a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I love being able to see, at exhibitions, original works of art that you are familiar with from books.  You can see their true scale and appreciate their  surface texture and thus get a real feeling for  how the artist created his work.

Unfortunately it's 'his' when it comes to the Pre-Raffs. Women's role in the movement, was to provide inspiration, be put on pedestals, dressed up in archaic costumes, sit in cold baths -Elizabeth Siddal nearly caught her death of cold posing for Millais's picture of Ophelia-and so on. Not many of them appear to laugh or even smile.

Sharon had to choose  a work to write an entry for the Tate's blog [She hasn't done that yet, but we will put a link to it from here when she does]. She decided on the Kelmscott Chaucer. The capital letters in the text have been an inspiration and basis for many of Sharon's repousse letters. I particularly like the otherworldly, almost Surrealistic, illustrations of the Kelmscott Chaucer by Edward Burne-Jones.

There's a special atmosphere that is evoked by this book which I can't describe but which is tangible in other places. One such is little Moreton Hall which we visited in September. To my mind it would make the perfect location for Pre -Raphaelite figures to swan about in.

Phil