AN exhibition celebrating the reign of the country’s second-longest reigning monarch has opened at Dudley Museum.

Victorian Pictures focuses on work produced between 1837 and 1901, the reign of Queen Victoria.

The pictures are varied and are grouped by themes.

The exhibition begins with work by landscape painters still working in the pre Victorian style and evolves through styles and decades right the way up to the late Victorian artists who were influenced by the avant garde styles coming from France.

Other groups include history paintings, flower paintings and seascapes.

A number of pictures of local scenes can be found, some of which celebrate the developing industrial landscape of Dudley while others look at the locality from a more romantic viewpoint.

An extra dimension to the exhibition has been added in the corridor approaching the main gallery, where a series of prints by the Victorian artist Richard Chattock are on show.

These have been complemented by a number of poems by local writer Elinor Cole, some of which have been written specially for the exhibition.

A booklet of her poems is available from the museum shop.

The exhibition runs until June 25.

Admission to the museum on St James’ Road is free.