Introduction

This website is intended to provide information about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of the mid to late 1800s in Britain, to provide an overview of five of its major artists, and to provide links to further research on this subject.

Formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1849 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, all friends from the Royal Academy Schools. The young idealistic painters (all three were in their late teens or early twenties) had a very particular idea about what art should be and do, which ran contrary to what they had been taught. The Royal Academy at the time held Raphael to be the epitome of artistic achievement, and taught its students to follow in his footsteps, composing symmetrical, heavily realistic paintings that were very subject-focused. Rossetti, Hunt and Millais, however, were inspired by the eminent Victorian critic John Ruskin's book Modern Painters, which argued that painters should return to the style of medieval and early Renaissance art. They conceived of a manifesto that would guide them in their painting and that they hoped would shape the future of art.

Principles of the Pre-Raphaelite Style

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded on the following principles:

• Defying the Academy's conventions, which included using pyramidal composition, emphasizing one color and focusing mainly on subjects in the foreground to create perspective. Instead, they created evenly and brightly-lit paintings which were incredibly detailed and sometimes appear almost flat.
• Increasing the use of typological symbolism in art, instead of a strict devotion to realism.
• Looking for new themes to paint, such as stories from Arthurian legend, Elizabethan, Romantic and contemporary British literature.
• Supporting the other arts: writing, poetry, etc.

Hunt, Millais and Rossetti invited William Rossetti (Dante's brother), James Collinson, Thomas Woolner, and F. G. Stephens to be part of the PRB. The Rossetti's sister Christina, a poet, was also associated with them, although she was never officially a member. The group produced a journal, The Germ, in which they published their literature and essays. In time, the group grew to include other writers, painters and critics such as Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Algernon Charles Swinburne and John Ruskin.

Rossetti's Ecce Ancilla Domini!, Millais' Christ in the House of His Parents, and Hunt's The Awakening Conscience are perhaps the best examples of Pre-Raphaelitism in this early, strictly defined stage. All make use of awkward perspective and modeling of the figures, and are evenly washed with color. When exhibited in the Royal Academy exhibitions of 1848, '49 and '50, the early Pre-Raphaelite works were generally met with derision. In time, however, as the group broadened and and moved away from direct medieval influence and personal styles changed, the Pre-Raphaelite movement came to influence the late Victorian Aesthetic movement, as well as the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles.

This Website

The five painters discussed on this site all exemplify the various aspects of Pre-Raphaelitism. Rossetti, who modeled his life after the 15th-century Italian poet Dante Aligheri, is best known for his stunning portraits of women (his wife Elizabeth Siddal and mistresses Fanny Cornforth and Jane Burden), which combine to create the image of a certain kind of mysterious beauty which still holds sway, in which the female functions as both muse and femme fatale. Millais and Hunt represent Pre-Raphaelitism in its purest sense, as discussed above. Burne-Jones exemplifies the decorative aspect, which paved the way for future movements in interior design, while Waterhouse exemplifies the favorite themes of the Pre-Raphaelites: Arthurian legend and literature, particularly that of Shakespeare, Keats and Tennyson.

Background image: The Bower Meadow by D.G. Rossetti

Information compiled from VictorianWeb and personal knowledge.