Release Date:  16-Jul-2008

Visitors to Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery are in for a surprise this summer as a new art display - Brought to Light - is set to be unveiled.

From Saturday 19 July and for the next six weeks, over 20 paintings, brought up from the storage rooms in the basement of the museum, will be on show for visitors to enjoy. 

Some of the selected paintings have never been displayed before and some have not been seen for 30 years. Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian and modern art paintings by Edwin Long, William Scott, Edmund Blair Leighton and Mary Fedden are amongst the paintings and artists featuring in Brought to Light.  New acquisitions purchased for the new museum of Bristol on show, will also be on display.

Visitors will be able to stand next to the huge early 19th century portrait by Edward Bird of King George III. This portrait was probably commissioned by the Corporation of Bristol to hang in the Mansion House in Queen Square. It narrowly escaped destruction during the Bristol Riots of October 1831 when a mob set fire to the Mansion House.

Very apt for the time of the year Harry Watson's Holidays shows a carefree day by a mountain river shared by a group of women and girls, painted in the 1920’s.

Even more apt to the city of Bristol is a fine selection of 12 portraits of the longest serving members of the Bristol tobacco company, W.D & H.O. Wills Ltd. After an employee had worked there for 40 years the company commissioned a portrait of him or her to hang in the factory or office premises. The portraits were purchased for the new Museum of Bristol, opening in 2011, and they are displayed here for the first time. Some of the faces and names of the employees are unknown - perhaps a visitor may stumble across a familiar face of a relative?

Alongside the paintings will be another treat for visitors; examples of stunning Victorian furniture designed by the Bristol-born architect E.W. Godwin. Including his iconic Anglo-Japanese sideboard.
 
Access to this display is free, as is entry to the city museum and art gallery.

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