Work from Arts and Crafts Movement on show (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Work from Arts and Crafts Movement on show

A COLLECTION of 60 works by Joseph Southall (1861-1944), one of the leading members of the Arts and Crafts Movement, is on show at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum until June 4.

These include paintings in oil and tempera, one substantial fresco and a number of drawings and watercolours.

Among these is a superb watercolour on vellum, Hortus Inclusus, depicting Southall's future wife in a dress of shot silk, seated with her large cat in the enclosed garden of mediaeval legend.

Southall trained as an architect in Birmingham before he fell under the spell of John Ruskin and turned to painting.

He played a key role in the revival of the mediaeval techniques of tempera and fresco painting and was a leading member of the Birmingham Group of craftsmen.

Apart from the two paintings acquired by Cheltenham (the one illustrated and another entitled Beauty Seeing the Image of her Home in the Fountain) the collection is for sale, so this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it.

Opening times, Monday-Saturday, 10am-5.20pm. Closed Bank Holidays. For more information ring 01242 237431.