A planned visit to Preston with my father, led to our visit the Harris Museum, which I had never heard of. Amongst the collection were many historical paintings moving nearer to the first of of the 20th century, and so I knew that I would love the connection. For myself, the best painting in the whole building was Frank Dicksee’s ‘Hespheria’ that depicted on of the Greek Hesperides, who were the Daughters of the Evenings and Nymphs of the West. These women were tasked, as Dicksee depicts in his work, to watch over Hera’s golden apples, and the setting and fashion that Dicksee used gives the sense of more of a Victorian style (himself being a Victorian) and rather a Pre Raphaelite influenced style rather than a mythology impression. For myself this does not matter as I that the portrait itself is delightful and lingered in my mind weeks after the visit.
One connection I found amongst the paintings was that both Harold Knight and Alfred James Munning’s work was on exhibition there, who were both members of the Lamorna colony. With their work, I do find myself drawn to Harold Knight as his style is much more polished and observation is evident where as AJ Munnings work has a business about it which there produces less focus as a genre painting.
This is a museum I would highly recommend and will be a memorable visit, notably for introducing me to the works of Frank Dicksee.
https://artuk.org/visit/venues/harris-museum-art-gallery-6196
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperides
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamorna#Newlyn_School_of_Art_and_the_Lamorna_Colony
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