Paul Cats and dogs bring out the positive and playful sides of their human companions and the artists who depict them. This display, which explores companion animals within domestic and rural settings, considers what borders are crossed to allow some animals into human lives, activities and domestic spaces – and what meanings are then bestowed upon … Read more
Degas, De’Anne & Miss La La: A live desktop performance by De’Anne Crooks This event took place on Wednesday 5 May 2021, 6 – 6.45pm Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879) is a drawing by Edgar Degas of Miss La La, an acrobat of mixed European and African parentage. Exoticised at the time … Read more
Search the coin collection online The Barber coin collection is now searchable online! You can now search over 11,000 items in the coin collection online at mimsy.bham.ac.uk. The chart below shows the percentage of the collection currently available online by category, listed by volume of coins online. Click here for a guide to getting the … Read more
Caricature, thought to have originated in Italy in the late 16th century, developed out of artists exaggerating their subjects’ physical features for expressive or comical effect. It arrived in England in the 1700s, and by the end of the century, had transformed in its use from mere lampoonery into satire and the comic cartoon. This … Read more
Making a Mark Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Royal Collection ‘Drawing is the father of painting…and the portal to many of the arts’ Karel van Mander, 1604. Exquisite and intriguing 16th- and 17th-century drawings by Dutch and Flemish artists, including Rubens, Rembrandt and Van Dyck, feature in Making a Mark, the Barber’s first physical … Read more
Drawn to Antiquity Works on Paper from the Lawrence Alma-Tadema Collection Print Bay Display The artist whose work inspired the design for Ridley Scott’s Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator comes under the spotlight in this fascinating display. Drawn to Antiquity features twelve drawings from the Lawrence Alma-Tadema Collection at the University of Birmingham’s Cadbury Research Library (Special … Read more
A revelatory project undertaken by the Barber and the University’s College of Medical and Dental Sciences has explored the fascinating part played by women in the hidden history of a common wild plant – and its role in the treatment of heart disease. Reclaiming the Foxglove is the first instalment of an ongoing partnership between … Read more
‘In 18th-century Britain, landscape – even the picturesque landscape – was a mode of political discourse.’ Ann Bermingham, 2002 The Viewer and the Viewed features eleven works on paper from the Barber’s collection by artists such as Gainsborough, Turner and David Cox, and explores these breathtaking landscapes from a socio-political perspective. Between the mid-eighteenth and … Read more
Walter Richard Sickert The Eldorado, Paris Paris, 1906 Oil on canvas 48.2 x 59 cm unframed; 67.3 x 78.6 x 8 cm framed Sickert spent much time in France until 1905 and was influenced by Whistler and Degas, becoming on his return to England the main link between British and French art. Many of his best … Read more
Series four Enjoy an in-depth insight into the Barber’s stunning collection through this programme of mini art podcasts. Discussions include past and present displays, small groups of related works, an aspect of the member of staff’s own research, or single masterpieces and recent acquisitions. Episode 6: The First Dictators: Politics, Propaganda and the Collapse of … Read more
The Art of Conversation Bringing together living artists, researchers, curators, museum workers and more – this Spotify podcast from the Barber Institute of Fine Arts focuses on a new artwork each episode, looking at the piece in a new light. Episode 1: Finding Sound in the Visual – Vesuvius in Eruption by Joseph Wright of … Read more
Magdalena van de Pass Latona and the Frogs Utrecht, 1633 Engraving 213 x 260 mm From a family of engravers, Magdalena van de Passe and her father planned to produce an illustrated book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It was published posthumously in 1677. Here, the superbly detailed landscape dwarfs the goddess Latona and her babies, Apollo … Read more
Tess Jaray Untitled: Study towards ‘Green Sanctuary’ London, 1964 Graphite on paper 65 x 149 mm Due to licencing rules, the Barber is currently unable to reproduce images of this work for our website. If you wish to view this work, you can make an appointment to see it in the Prints and Drawings Study Room. … Read more
The Miller’s Tale I (from The Canterbury Tales II series) London, 1972 Etching and aquatint on paper 652 x 462 mm Due to licencing rules, the Barber is currently unable to reproduce images of this work for our website. If you wish to view this work, you can make an appointment to see it in … Read more
Study for ‘Villandry’ London, 1966 Graphite on paper 246 x 259 mm Due to licencing rules, the Barber is currently unable to reproduce images of this work for our website. If you wish to view this work, you can make an appointment to see it in the Prints and Drawings Study Room. Jaray draws the eye … Read more
Untitled Study London, 1964 Graphite on paper 373 x 300 mm Due to licencing rules, the Barber is currently unable to reproduce images of this work for our website. If you wish to view this work, you can make an appointment to see it in the Prints and Drawings Study Room. Jaray’s untitled studies seemingly offer … Read more
Reclaiming the Foxglove, Cultivating Narratives A joint project between the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and the College of Medicine and Health (CMH) at the University of Birmingham (UoB) In 2021, students and staff from the College of Medicine and Health joined forces with the Barber Institute of Fine Arts to explore herbalism’s forgotten voices … Read more
Unrecorded Roman Artist Head of a Bearded Man Rome, 2nd century AD Marble 40.2 cm high This damaged bust probably dates from the 2nd century AD. The Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD) was the first to introduce the Greek habit of wearing a beard, and this fashion was followed by wider society. Busts of the … Read more
Unrecorded Roman Artist Head of a Man Rome, 1st century AD Marble 31.1 x 20.3 x 22.3 cm The development of Roman portraiture is characterised by a stylistic cycle that alternately emphasised realistic or idealising elements. This battered bust (possibly re-carved), with its lifelike wrinkles and folds of skin tempered by classical, regular features, would … Read more
Unrecorded Greek Artist Head of a Woman Greece, about 445BC Marble 21.1 x 20 x 13 cm This sculpture was perhaps carved in about 445 BC and since detached from a relief. This may have been a high relief, or the pediment of a small building. The woman’s hair appears to be plaited high across … Read more
Unrecorded Persian Artist Head of a Spearman Persepolis, Persia (modern day Iran), 5th century BC Limestone 26.1 x 24.1 x 7.5 cm This fragment depicts a bearded profile head of a Persian guardsman wearing a feathered headdress. A tongue motif is on the bevelled edge above the head. It is from a frieze on the … Read more
Unrecorded Greek Artist Head of Aphrodite Greece, 4th century BC Marble 30 (19.5 excluding base) x 14 x 14 cm Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty; the Roman equivalent was Venus. She is shown here with wavy hair, which is a delicate nod to the notion that she sprang from the sea. … Read more
Unrecorded Greco-Roman Artist Torso of Venus Rome, 1st century AD Marble 58.4 cm high This fragment is based on a life-size prototype dating from the 4th century BC by the great Greek master Praxiteles (about 400-330 BC). He is credited as the first artist to fashion a monumental image of Aphrodite nude. The original, now … Read more
Francis Derwent Wood Profile Bust of Lady Barber (1869 – 1933) England, 1913 Marble 57 x 47 cm This profile bust depicts Lady Martha Constance Hattie Barber, the founder of the Barber Institute. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1914 and again in 1927. Lady Barber and her husband Sir Henry Barber were … Read more
Francis Derwent Wood Profile Bust of Sir Henry Barber (1860 – 1927) England, 1914 Plaster 55.8 x 39.4 cm Sir William Henry Barber was the husband of Lady Martha Constance Hattie Barber. Hattie founded the Barber Institute in 1932 in his memory. She died, childless, four months later, leaving the entire Barber fortune to the … Read more
Unrecorded Artist Pax: Christ in the Tomb between the Virgin and St John the Baptist Model: probably South German, after 1457; Variant: probably North Italian, about 1500 Bronze 16.6 x 10.7 cm This relief is a pax, or tablet, one of many such objects commonly used in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as a … Read more
