Painter Peter Edge brings the enduring allure of Rome to the Grosvenor Museum

Exhibition: Glimpses of Grandeur: Paintings of Rome by Peter Edge, Grosvenor Museum, Chester, February 19 – May 2 2011

“It never ceases to amaze me how one can enter a building that is sombre and dishevelled outside," says painter Peter Edge. You are presented with the most amazingly grandiose interior, where architecture and decoration, sculpture and painting combine to overpower and astound.”

Edge’s work has won a multitude of prizes domestically, but his enduring love remains with Rome.

“It has been my principal inspiration over the last five years, although I had been a regular visitor for a decade before this. Rome is a city that reveals something new every time I visit. I find it captivating, enigmatic and intriguing.”

On an enviable journey through the Eternal City, Edge takes on the art and architecture of the city through dramatic contrasts of light, shadow and colour, glimpsing chinks in curtains, holy altars and sunset beaming down sidestreets.

“His paintings combine drama and intimacy,” says Richard Short, a cultural planner in the no less attractive Cheshire city where Edge's efforts are going on show.

“They evoke a very personal view of an endlessly fascinating city.”