Storytellers

This exhibition is now closed

Storytellers explores the narrative genre popular during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and includes collection favourites such as van der Velden's The Dutch funeral.

It's said that every picture tells a story. Painters of the narrative genre popular with Victorian and Edwardian audiences in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often drew heavily on symbolism to provide clues and cues that allowed the viewer to read the story behind the painting.

Christchurch Art Gallery's collection includes a number of historical works in which a storyline embedded within the composition is visually communicated to the viewer. Examples include collection favourites like Petrus van der Velden's The Dutch funeral, Henrietta Rae's Doubts and George Dunlop's In the wizard's garden.