The Victoria Gallery & Museum reopened to the public this week with three new exhibitions for visitors to enjoy.
The venue has been closed since March 2020 due to the pandemic, with exhibitions and displays moving online.
But now the doors have reopened with the gallery's most famous painting on display - JMW Turner's The Eruption of the Soufrière Mountains in the Island of St Vincent, 30 April 1812.
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Nicola Euston, head of museums & galleries at the University of Liverpool, said: "We are delighted to be able to welcome visitors back to the VG&M.
"This year has been a huge challenge, not only for us at the VG&M, but for the whole sector, and I am incredibly proud of our team and the work that they have done to continue to support and entertain our audiences online."
The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am–5pm. Visitors must book a free timed entry slot in advance to maintain social distancing and safely manage numbers. The new exhibitions are:
Nature v Humans - until September 25
Features artworks illustrating the ever-present tensions between the natural world and the human race.
Inspired by the Coronavirus pandemic and by the current worldwide focus on environmental issues, this exhibition features Turner’s magnificent The Eruption of the Soufrière Mountains in the Island of St Vincent, 30 April 1812, which dates from 1815.
The exhibition also contains a work by Merseybeat artist and poet Adrian Henri, an imposing, recently-acquired piece by Peter Lanyon and an original sculpted response to the Coronavirus pandemic borrowed from Lancashire-based, award-winning ceramicist Helen Birnbaum. Other artists include Cornelia Parker and Sir Frank Bowling.
A New Beauty: Romanticism in Art 1880 – 1920
Explores the evolving ways in which physical attractiveness was depicted from the late 1800s.
It features a beautiful drawing by late Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Coley Burne-Jones, exquisite studies by Glasgow School luminaries Frances MacDonald MacNair and her husband J Herbert MacNair, complemented by characterful etchings by James Hamilton Hay, a bronze by Liverpool sculptor CJ Allen and a hand-carved feature fireplace designed by early female students at the University of Liverpool.
It also contains a cheeky bronze statue called The Sluggard by Sir Frederic Leighton, which has become a firm favourite after being featuring in the battle of the bums on Twitter.
The Art of Ruin
On the first floor Balcony Wall is a display of Italian landscapes which celebrate the ruinous and crumbling - a taste that emerged in Rome in the mid-1600s.
Generally known as Capriccio, these playful paintings juxtapose ruined structures with often imaginary landscapes to give viewers a glimpse into a fantastical realm.
