Awakening Beauty II

The exhibition The Awakening of Beauty II presents an exceptional collection of Victorian art, conceived and researched by Dr. Paul Crowther, professor emeritus of aesthetics and art history at the National University of Ireland in Galway. He systematically collected works by the Pre-Raphaelites, their predecessors, and contemporaries. He systematically collected works by the Pre-Raphaelites, their predecessors, and contemporaries. The first part of the collection was exhibited at the National Gallery in 2014, and this year we are presenting a selection of oil paintings and watercolors from the second part of this encyclopedic collection. In 2022, we signed a donation agreement whereby Dr. Paul Crowther and his wife Mojca Oblak are donating the entire collection to the National Gallery and, upon their death, will also bequeath the part not covered by the agreement.

The exhibition features 185 works, arranged according to individual thematic groups that highlight the key themes of Victorian painting. Victorian art was named after the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), but its stylistic origins date back to after 1815, when art in Europe began to lean toward a more realistic representation of the world and away from academic idealism after the Napoleonic Wars. Victorian painting focuses on people and their everyday lives. Painters therefore often depicted genre scenes, and instead of exalted mythological or biblical figures, realistic characters became more important, accurately depicted in movement, expression, and clothing, with great attention to light, texture, and detail. In this regard, a group known as The Clique is particularly important, represented in this exhibition by artists such as Richard Dadd (1817–1886), William Powell Frith (1819–1909), and Henry O'Neil (1817–1880).

Also on display are works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and its circle, who advocated faithful imitation of nature and a return to the artistic ideals of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The founding members of the brotherhood are represented in the exhibition by John Everett Millais (1829–1896) and William Holman Hunt (1827–1907). A large part of the exhibition is also devoted to female artists, who had few opportunities for professional training at the beginning of the Victorian era, but gradually gained access to institutionalised education over the course of the century. Female artists mostly operated in the fields of genre painting, landscape and still life. Among the most established Victorian female painters are Helen Allingham (1848–1926), Louise Jopling (1843–1933), and Lucy Kemp-Welch (1869–1958).

The exhibition is complemented by nine collages by artist Mojca Oblak, which represent her personal response to Richard Dadd's series of paintings depicting Byron's metaphysical drama Manfred.  

Paul Crowther

Project leader
Kaja Cajhen

Exhibition set-up
Ranko Novak

Graphic design
Ranko Novak, Kristina Kurent

Tina Buh, Zala Debevec, Barbara Dragan, Miha Pirnat, Andreja Ravnikar, Matevž Sterle

The exhibition was supported by

20 November 2025 – 8 February 2026
National Gallery of Slovenia
Prešernova 24
1000 Ljubljana