Joseph Edward Southall was a British Arts and Crafts painter and a member of the Birmingham Group. They were one of the last outposts of Romanticism in the visual arts, and an important link between the last embers of the Pre-Raphaelites and the new Slade Symbolists. He first saw tempera paintings in 1883, during a tour of Italy. Seduced by the vibrancy and delicacy of Italian Renaissance temperas, he started to experiment with the technique. Thanks to Southall’s efforts, by 1900 tempera painting was well established in England, and the Society of Painters in Tempera was founded. He used the technique to create richly coloured, decorative compositions peopled by elegant figures. These are jewel-like works, many still in their original gold frames made by Southall and his wife.