The Blue Bower, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1865

Even on the train up to Birmingham, I was dithering. Was it going to be the city art gallery - magnificent, but I've been there before, if not for many years - or the Barber Institute which had been on my 'one-day' list for ages? Could I manage to cram both into the day, around all the other things I had planned? (I tried. I couldn't.) Still dithering outside the station, I saw a bus heading towards the University ... decision made.

Rossetti's portrait of Fanny Cornforth is luscious ... her necklace of cabochon rubies and emerald, that splendid comb, the fluffy trim on her gown that you'd love to stroke, those wonderful blue and white tiles and the passion flowers and cornflowers.

But wonderful as it is, I felt more drawn to Gainsborough's Harriott Marsham - a lady of character.

The Hon Harriott Marsham, Thomas Gainsborough