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New Nelson Print in Barber’s ‘Exhibitions with Attitude’
Admiral Lord Nelson and his mistress Lady Hamilton feature in an unusual exhibition opening at the Barber Institute this autumn. Celebrating the bicentenary of Nelson’s great victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, Nelson’s Muse: Lady Hamilton and her Attitudes is one of two shows commencing at the University of Birmingham-based gallery later this month that examine the themes of portraiture, personality and celebrity.
Nelson’s Muse features Tommaso Piroli’s Drawings faithfully copied from Nature at Naples, a series of fascinating hand-coloured etchings of Lady Hamilton’s famous ‘attitudes’ (poses in classical costume) published in 1794. Never shown at the Barber Institute before, these prints, taken from original drawings by Friedrich Rehberg, are displayed together with an anonymous set of satirical British pastiches and a newly acquired mezzotint of Lord Nelson. All the works have been specially conserved for this exhibition.
Senior Curator Paul Spencer-Longhurst said the exhibition would shed light on the more private side of Horatio Nelson, who first met Emma Hamilton at Naples in 1793. “Lady Hamilton was already notorious for her highly unconventional lifestyle, including her forays into acting,” said Dr Spencer-Longhurst. “This exhibition will certainly show her in a different, and at times rather irreverent, light, compared with most of the bicentenary exhibitions and celebrations of Nelson being held around Britain this year.”
Nelson’s Muse will be accompanied by the thematic display Face to Face: The Portrait Explored, which opens in the Main Galleries. Tracing the history of portraiture from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, and examining the types that evolved in this period, from the profile bust to the dramatic full-length, it includes works by Rubens, Gainsborough, Rossetti and Renoir. Whose personality do we really confront in a portrait—that of the person depicted, or of the artist himself? What are the differences between a model and a sitter? And when is a portrait not a portrait? These, and other fundamental questions, are explored in this show, drawn from the Barber’s own collection.
The two exhibitions will be accompanied by a series of free, weekly, public lectures exploring portraiture in art and coins. These are on Wednesdays at 1.10 pm in the Barber Institute Lecture Theatre, and run from 12 October to 16 November.
| For further information, please contact Andrew Davies, Barber Press and Marketing Officer, on 0121 414 2946 or andrewdavies@barber.org.uk |