Over 60 works of art from Birmingham's world-class Pre-Raphaelite collection are back on public display at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery from Saturday 25 October 2025.

Four newly refurbished galleries of paintings, sculptures and stained glass by artists such as Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Frederick Sandys are open free of charge to visitors as part of the museum’s continued phased reopening.

The opening of the Pre-Raphaelite galleries also means that visitors will once again have unrestricted access through to the Staffordshire Hoard during museum opening hours for the first time since 2020, rather than by guided viewings only.

Birmingham has the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art and design in the world. Selected from this outstanding collection, the displays will introduce audiences to the Pre-Raphaelites and their circle, from their early works through to artists working in Birmingham at the turn of the 20th century.

Visitors will be able to see some of the collection’s most popular pieces, including Night with her Train of Stars by Edward Robert Hughes, which will be on public view for the first time in a decade. Hughes’ picture is a watercolour and is only on display for limited periods to protect it from damage by light.

Highlights include new acquisitions by female artists, including the first oil painting by a female Pre Raphaelite to enter the city’s collection – Emma Sandys’ Young Woman with a Rose – and The Puritan Maiden Priscilla by Birmingham painter Kate Bunce, which is on show in the museum for the first time.

There will also be the chance to see important pictures on long-term loan from private collections, including paintings by Joanna Boyce Wells, Burne-Jones and Arthur Hughes.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is open Monday to Sunday 10.00 am to 5.00 pm.
General admission is free. Donations welcome. For more information, visit: birminghammuseums.org.uk