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'The Suppliants' by Edwin Long returns to Royal Holloway

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From Marseilles to Egham, an exciting artwork returns to Royal Holloway’s Picture Gallery after starring in a ground-breaking exhibition.

  • Date05 October 2023

Edwin Long’s The Suppliants: Expulsion of the Gypsies from Spain has been on loan to the Mucem (Marseilles, France), where it was exhibited as part of their special exhibition: Barvalo.

Barvalo (meaning ‘rich’ and ‘proud’), explored the histories, experiences and cultures of Romani populations in Europe, addressing long over-looked Romani contributions to European culture. As well as demonstrating the centuries of prejudice and persecution experienced by Romani people, this exhibition worked to raise questions of belonging and identity for Europe’s largest ethnic minority group (comprising of over ten million people).

The exhibition was devised by a team of nineteen people of Romani (Roma, Sinti, Manouches, Gitanos, Travellers) and non-Romani origin, of different nationalities and backgrounds. Julia Ferloni, co-curator of the Mucem, commented that this collaborative approach helped to correct the bad treatment of the Romani population, specifying that ‘Discussions with our council of experts helped us a lot in counteracting this. We benefited from their experience to avoid reinforcing Romaphobia.’ (https://www.uvm.edu/news/cas/barvalo-honoring-rich-proud-heritage-roma-people).

Barvalo incorporated 200 works and documents (printed, video and sound) to tell the story of the Romani experience both historically and contemporarily, with the exhibition including modern-day artworks to evidence a notable vibrance in the Romani cultural scene today. Several other notable institutions loaned works to support the exhibition, including the Louvre Museum, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture in Berlin.

Royal Holloway’s contribution: The Suppliants, depicts King Phillip III of Spain receiving a deputation of gypsies pleading against the royal ordinance of 1619 which threatened their expulsion. This subject was not often addressed in visual art, making our loan an important focal point of the Barvalo exhibition. Reviews of the exhibition have been overwhelmingly positive, with The New York Times referring to it as ‘the first show of its kind.’ Several reviews have specifically referenced – and reprinted - the Edwin Long painting, establishing the loan as a significant part of the exhibition narrative. The Barvalo exhibition catalogue includes a double-page spread of The Suppliants, accompanied by commentary in Romani (which is not recognised as a language on Google Translate).