Pre-Raphaelite exhibition explores LGBT+ stories

4 hours ago

Grace WoodYorkshire

News image — Rochyne Delaney McNult chose Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Portrait of a Young Man to reflect on

Bradford Museums and Galleries A person wearing a colourful shirt with short hair stands next to a portrait of a man. On their right is a board that reads: Discussing the Pre-Raphaelites — Rochyne Delaney McNult chose Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Portrait of a Young Man to reflect on

An exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite artworks has gone on display alongside responses to the pieces from members of Bradford's LGBT+ community.

The exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery features work by artists such as Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones and John Collier and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Artist Sophie Powell from Equity Partnership, a charity run for LGBT+ people, welcomed the project and said she hoped more galleries and art collections would follow suit.

"These conversations are vital and ever evolving, they bring expertise through lived experience into the room. This is important work - representing, embodying and celebrating queerness in art," she said.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was an influential 19th-Century movement founded in London in 1848.

Its work rejected the artistic conventions of the period and instead looked to Medieval art and nature for inspiration.

In November 2025, Equity Partnership members met with Cartwright Hall staff to view and discuss the artworks.

Now their reflections have been presented alongside the images.

Bradford Museums and Galleries A person with short hair and a colourful shirt stands next to a painting in a gallery. The painting shows a woman in white on a white horse surrounded by flowers she is being attended by men in green — Sophie Powell chose to reflect on Queen Guinevere's Maying

Powell said her favourite work in the collection was John Collier's Queen Guinevere's Maying.

"It embodies a strong woman in a central role, and is the starting point for so many conversations about the Arthurian legends," she said.

"Being part of the Pre-Raphaelite project through Equity Partnership, I learned that Guinevere's legend has been twisted and distorted over the centuries.

"Far from being a fallen woman, having her head turned by Lancelot and leading to the downfall of King Arthur, this plot was written into legend long after the inception of the stories."

Bradford Museums and Galleries Three portrait paintings in an art gallery. The background wall is green, there is wood panneling below — The exhibition includes works by Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Rochyne Delaney McNulty, another member of Equity Partnership whose reflections have been included in the exhibition, said they had chosen Rossetti's Portrait of a Young Man.

"We mused this could be a gender flipped portrait, especially because it's unnamed.

"Showing the openness that William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti welcomed, I think we could learn a lot about acceptance from the Pre-Raphaelites," they said.

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