Published: January 23, 2025 | Updated: 23rd January 2025
The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum in Bournemouth has received a £30,000 grant to support development of a new exhibition set to open in 2027.
Awarded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the funding will support the gallery’s upcoming showcase of the 19th-century revival in tempera painting.
Tempera is a technique that uses a water-soluble binder – usually egg yolk – to turn pigments into a paint, and was the primary painting medium in many cultures until oil paints became available around 1500.
But three centuries later, the Pre-Raphaelites championed a resurgence in the medium, drawn by its associations with craftsmanship, colour intensity and beautiful simplicity.
The upcoming exhibition will explore links to the Pre-Raphaelites, arts and crafts movement and artist Joseph Southall (1861–1944), displaying rarely seen works from the collection alongside loans from other national museums.
After all, the Russell-Cotes gallery itself played a major part in the revival during the 1930s and 40s, with then-curator Norman Silvester holding at least three exhibitions focused on the medium.
Norman wrote in 1944 about the acquisition of the tempera work ‘Pamela’ by Poole artist Arthur Bradbury that “this gallery has played no small part in encouraging the revival of this medieval expression and now possesses enough examples to fill the smallest gallery.”
Interest in the medium waned after World War II, though some notable contemporary artists including Anthony Williams, who won the National Portrait Award last year at the National Portrait Gallery for a work in tempera.
The Bournemouth exhibition is planned to tour nationwide.
Sarah Newman, manager at the Russell-Cotes, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have received this generous grant from the Paul Mellon Centre.
“This project will allow us to cast a light onto the fascinating history of tempera revival and its impact on 19th- and 20th-century British art, and we’re excited to bring these beautiful paintings and important story to life for our visitors.”
