Every art work tells a story. Most works tell many stories: What is shown in the painting? What isn’t shown? Why was this work made? Who paid for this work to be made? Why was it chosen to be in a museum collection? How did the circumstances of the artist’s life lead to them becoming an artist?You can absolutely enjoy a work without having any interest in its stories. However, we all bring our own stories with us when viewing art. The story you ‘read’ depends very much on your own personal story. Some of these works re-tell a famous story ( for example 'Circe offering the Cup for Ulysses'), while others leave you to imagine the story ('Bonjour Pierrot' is one of these).
She and Chandrabaty
Annie Louisa Swynnerton (1844–1933)
Oil on canvas
H 147 x W 91 cm
Gallery Oldham
The Mackerel Take
A White Slave
Allow Your Friends to Meet Your Enemies
Lubaina Himid (b.1954)
Acrylic, pencil & magazine clipping on paper
H 74.5 x W 95 cm
Gallery Oldham
Bonjour, Pierrot!
John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)
Oil on canvas
H 148 x W 92 cm
Gallery Oldham
Girl in a Wood
Barnet Fair, Hertfordshire
Walter Richard Sickert (1860–1942)
Oil on canvas
H 73.5 x W 61 cm
Gallery Oldham
.
'As I wend to the shores I know not, As I list to the dirge, the voices of men and women wreck'd'
Carel Victor Morlais Weight (1908–1997)
Oil on panel
H 120 x W 260 cm
Gallery Oldham
This Leprous Brightness
Imran Qureshi (b.1972)
Opaque watercolour on wasli paper
H 26 x W 34 cm
Gallery Oldham
Dorothy and Marjory Lees
Theodore Blake Wirgman (1848–1925)
Oil on canvas
H 49 x W 59.5 cm
Gallery Oldham