Special Prado exhibition of Murillo works transfers to London

A special exhibition of works by 17th Century Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is set to open at London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery, fresh from the Museo del Prado, in Madrid.

Known as one of the world’s greatest art galleries for its displays of works by European greats including Velázquez, Goya and Rubens, the Prado presented the exhibition ‘Murillo and Justino de Neve: the Art of Friendship’ in summer 2012.

The exhibition explores the fruitful friendship between Murillo and Justino de Neve, the canon of Seville Cathedral.

Now moving to London, the selection of 17 paintings – five of which were restored especially for the exhibition – will include religious and devotional works as well as allegories and portraits and is the first major showing of Murillo’s works since 1982.

Produced at the height of the artist’s career, the paintings were mainly commissioned for Seville’s many churches and one work, the Penitent St Peter, was thought lost until it was discovered in a private collection in early 2012.

The exhibition will be joined by a special display of Dulwich Picture Gallery’s own collection of Murillo’s which have undergone some enlightening conservation including the discovery of a newly confirmed Murillo.

The exhibition opens in Dulwich at Britain’s first purpose-built public art gallery on February 6 and runs until May 19. Entry costs £11 for adults and £10 for seniors and £5 concessions. Children enter FREE.

A second, free exhibition – Murillo at the Wallace Collection: Painting of the Spanish Golden Age – will run simultaneously at the Wallace Collection in London’s Manchester Square.

It will include a collection of Murillo works put together by the 4th Marquess of Hertford as well as pieces by his workshop and associates such as Francisco Meneses Osorio and Juan Simon Gutierrez.


For more information, visit www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk and www.wallacecollection.org