Visit to Manchester Gallery 30th April

We looked at the Holman Hunt and Pre -Raphaelite exhib9tion with curator Melva Croale who gave us a great deal of background information about the artists and their work displayed. There were a number of voluptuous female figures depicting historice scenes and which gave Ann Hornsby plenty of meat for her descriptive powers to flow about pert breasts and rounded bums!! By contrast, we viewed a paintng of The Good Samaritan which clearly depicted a good man helping the frail figure of a man who had been robbed and injured in the roadsude.
We moved to a different Gallery and had a different curatorSandra Martin to continue with us and agan give us a great deal of information about the two Manchester artists Lowry and Valette who had both painted many scenes of Manchester. We also saw a self portrait of Valette which had not been completed.
During our tour of the galleries, the curators and Ann were in competition with various other activities going on with school groups and photographic opportunities. I am quite sure that as a consequence Melva, Sandra and Ann more than rose to the challenge and delivered an even more than dynamic lecture for us. It brought home to us that the gallery has to manage many different group visits to them and just occasionally things can go a little fraught - certainly nothing that Mary should beat herself up about. Also, the gallery is not deserving of too many negative comments after ahe many occasions when visits have gone loke clockwork.
We all enjoyed a welcome cuppa and biscuit or two in the education suite before wending our way home.
Many thanks to the curators and Ann for a memorable morning and to Mary and volunteers for making it all happen.
posted by Elaine