PROVO, UTAH - The prosperity of the Victorian era (1837-1901) transformed the British art world from a small group of artists who painted for the nobility into a robust community of artists who were free to create paintings that depicted powerful stories from ancient history and contemporary life with a richness of color and wealth of detail that captured the admiration of the age. “Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer,” a new exhibition at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art on view from Feb. 15 through Aug. 16, 2008, will give visitors the rare opportunity to view some of the most beautiful and well-crafted works of this period from the private collection of Australian businessman and entrepreneur John H. Schaeffer.
 
The exhibition will consist of paintings, sculpture and works on paper by the luminaries of Victorian art including, William Holman Hunt, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John William Waterhouse and George Frederic Watts. Many of these pieces have never been shown before in the United States .

“There is a story-telling aspect to these works that makes them interesting to nearly everyone; and they are painted with the most dazzling craftsmanship. Each one of these paintings is intriguing in some way,” said Museum of Art Curator Paul Anderson . “Beyond that, these works offer a window into an era of British history that is important to the development of our own history and culture. In this historical moment — the beginning of the industrial world — artists are trying to find a way to deal with the newness and complexities of modern life.”

The works in the exhibition will be grouped into five thematic categories: religious works, paintings depicting mythology, literature and history, paintings of everyday life, paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and works by other European artists.

The religious works in the exhibition are narrative depictions of Biblical accounts or symbolic representations of religious ideas. Paintings that featured epic depictions of stories from mythology, literature and history were considered “High Art” by some artists during the Victorian era. An example of this type of painting is the impressive 9-foot-tall “Mariamne” by J.W. Waterhouse. It depicts the tragic story of Mariamne, the young wife of King Herod, who is leaving his throne room after being sentenced to death based on false accusations of infidelity. Herod sits on his throne, torn between his love for his wife and his jealous fury. The painting captures the solemn drama of the occasion, with the innocent woman dressed in white silhouetted against the darkly sumptuous palace.

A century ago, most Victorian art fell out of favor with art critics and artists in their scramble to adopt the new modernist visions emerging at the time. Many people viewed everything associated with the Victorian era as overly sentimental, garish, cluttered and fussy. By the 1960s, however, collectors and academics began to rediscover the art of this time. Images from this period surfaced on calendars, note cards and book covers. Scholars highlighted the social and historical contexts of the works, examined the shifting aesthetic values behind their creation, and explored the didactic and symbolic components of the intriguing narratives of Victorian art.

In addition to the works in the exhibition, the museum will display six Victorian paintings from its permanent collection in the J. Herbert Milburn gallery, located adjacent to the “Masterworks of Victorian Art” exhibition gallery. The works will include two paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema and a painting titled “Return of the Prodigal” by Sir Edward John Poynter that the museum purchased from Schaeffer in 2006. The display will also include preliminary sketches of the Poynter work from the Schaeffer collection.

“Masterworks of Victorian Art from the Collection of John H. Schaeffer” will open Friday, Feb. 15, 2008 and will be on view through Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008 in the Warren & Alice Jones and Paul & Betty Boshard galleries on the museum’s lower level. This exhibition is sponsored in part by Media One of Utah (Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret Morning News). Admission to the exhibition is free of charge.  Visit : www.moa.byu.edu/