Great walls of China

Waterhouse’s Circe - on display in China

A PAIR of Oldham’s major Victorian paintings are to go on display in China.

Two pieces from the £19 million borough collection have been loaned for a touring exhibition, Towards Modernity: Three Centuries of British Art, now on tour.

The two paintings, “Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses” by JM Waterhouse - worth £1.5m and one of the borough’s most famous works; and “The Drinking Place” by Stanhope Forbes, will be in China until October.

Both pieces will be back on the borough’s gallery walls next year. “Circe” - xtensively renovated in recent years - will be on show as part of the “Oldham Stories: Encounters With our Collections” exhibition from December.

“The Drinking Place” will be back on show at the gallery from the spring.