Since early retirement five years ago I have been given annual National Trust membership as a birthday present from my children. I’ve now visited quite a few of the properties around the Midlands, but Wightwick Manor (pictured below) and near Wolverhampton is the first one I’ve visited for a second time. This is a good thing because everything the Trust owns is packed with treasures and it can be challenging, even daunting, to take in more than a small fraction through a single pass.

It was owned by the Mander family previously who had a passion for Pre-Raphaelite art and built up a large collection. The Pre-Raphaelites were founded in 1848 as a British Brotherhood who rejected academic rules for intense colour, minute detail, romantic realism and medieval themes before Raphael.

This is one of them entitled ‘Love Among The Ruins’ by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones.

Then by the stags head (which always reminds me of the scene in Fawlty Towers when a moose one lands on Basil) is ‘Mrs Nassau Senior’ by George Frederick Watts. Both hang in the Great Parlour.

A few days later a visit to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery offered the chance to see more Pre-Raphaelites.

Unfinished ‘La donna del finestra’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti by William Holman Hunt.

The Last Of England by Ford Madox Brown.

The Gentleman Of Verona by William Holman Hunt.