History

"In the first place Pre-Raphaelitism was essentially a revolutionary movement and a revolutionary movement against technically bad painting" (Hares-Stryker 15).

In 1848, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Homan Hunt were all studying art at the Royal Academy. Disgusted with the contrived, trite, overly-sentimental work that was the accepted norm in Britain (as they saw it), they somewhat playfully decided to rebel, in their art, against such trends. The revolution became more serious later that same year when, mostly under Rossetti's direction, the group took on on new members: William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Thomas Woolner, and F.G. Stephens (none of whom, ironically, were serious painters).  They called themselves the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" at Hunt's insistence, espousing the belief that the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael was the first who did not attempt to imitate nature.  Raphael and those who followed him, they claimed, consciously attempted to compose their pictures into a balanced and symmetrical whole rather than painting what they saw, whether symmetrical or not.  The Pre-Raphaelites took for their subjects brightly painted  figures, often women, often from literature, and, as they loved the romance of medievalism, often medieval.

The Rossettis' sister, Christina, was also associated with the group; at the time, she had already been published, and she would, in later years, win more critical acclaim for her poetry than any of the others won for their art.  Ford Madox Brown (Dante Gabriel Rossetti's former painting teacher) also kept up with the group.  Neither were formally inducted as members, however.

1849 saw the actual launching of the rebellion.  D.G. Rossetti exhibited The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, including the initials "PRB" with his signature, Millais exhibited Isabella, and Hunt, Rienzi.  All three received great praise.  In 1850, however, everything fell apart. Beginning in January, the Brotherhood published The Germ, a journal dedicated to exploring the relationship between nature and art.  The journal bombed; its last issue appeared in April of that year, the same month that a newspaper published an article on the meaning of "PRB."  Everyone responded furiously to the newly revealed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, seeing it as elitist, pretentious, and cultish.  Charles Dickens even called Millais's work "revolting."  Only art critic John Ruskin, himself a proponent of naturalism in art, came forward to defend them.

Rossetti's Girlhood of Mary Virgin	Millais's Isabella	Hunt's Rienzi

   


By 1851, the group had broken up.  Although many of its members remained true to the spirit of Pre-Raphaelitism, developing the movement in different directions, Dante Gabriel Rossetti stuck to the name most faithfully.  Hunt later claimed that he and Millais had founded the school of Pre-Raphaelitism (a statement which is probably true); Rossetti, however, gleaned fame from it. 

The story isn't over.  In 1856 Rossetti met Edward Burne-Jones, who was attending Exeter College in Oxford.  He promptly took on the younger man as his protege, and a new set of Pre-Raphaelites soon formed:  Burne-Jones, William Morris, Charles Faulkner, Cornell Price, Richard Watson Dixon, and William Fulford.  These men, more politically-minded, saw medievalism not as an end in itself, but as a representation of the sort of society that Victorian England should become--one which valued quality crafstmanship and the individual.  
 

Burne-Jones's depiction of Sleeping Beauty, for the Briar Rose series

By late 1856, the tide of public opinion had turned. The revived Pre-Raphaelite movement was gaining not only members, but also critical admiration, possibly simply because more members of this group displayed actual artistic talent (just a guess).  In the 1860s and 1870s, participants in the movement would publish poetry as well as displaying paintings; with the exception of Christina Rossetti, their poetry met with a lukewarm reception.

Sick of what it saw as shoddy workmanship in urban design, the group also collectively founded the Arts and Crafts movement, which would become huge in late Victorian England and America.  All of them threw themselves into the design of fabrics, wallpaper, ceramic tiles, and the like.  Only Morris stayed with it, however, forming the business firm "Morris and Company" for the purpose of marketing these products; we can still purchase textiles that he designed today.

Morris's Design for a textile, entitled Autumn

Morris, in fact, was the busy bee of this group.  In 1883, he joined the Democratic Federation--i.e., became a socialist. (The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, oddly, has his membership card, complete with signature).  Morris launched The Commonwealth, a publication that promoted democratic socialism in Britain.  Upon becoming dissillusioned with these political movements a few years later, he and Burne-Jones formed the Kelmscott Press, which produced (among other books) a beautiful and highly praised edition of Chaucer's works.

Rossetti, meanwhile, continued painting women: Elizabeth Sidall, his eventual wife; Jane Morris, wife of William Morris and Rossetti's lover; and Fanny Cornsworth, a prostitute with whom he became obsessed.  His reputation as a fine painter grew. 

In the last two decades of the 19th century, the Pre-Raphaelite movement expanded beyond this close circle to influence other writers and artists, with Rossetti and Burne-Jones, especially, as representatives.  The most famous of these third-wave Pre-Raphaelites include the poet Swinburne, painters John and Evelyn de Morgan and John William Waterhouse, and novelist Oliver Madox Brown (Ford's son).

As the turn of the century approached, Pre-Raphaelitism disappeared, eclipsed by a movement it had inspired--Art Noveau.

Hunt's Rienzi once again--this time, at a reasonable size, though substantially less colorful

Next

Home

How to

Yeats bio

Pre-Raphaelitism

Crossways

Rose

Wind Among

Links

About Me

Information on this page comes from the following sources:

Casteras, Susan P. English Pre-Raphaelitism and Its Reception in America in the Nineteenth Century. Rutherford, etc.: Associated University         Presses, 1990.

Hares-Stryker, Carolyn. An Anthology of Pre-Raphaelite Writings. Washington Square: New York University Press, 1997.

Hilton, Timothy. The Pre-Raphaelites. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1970.

Wood, Christopher. The Pre-Raphaelites. New York: Viking Press, 1981.