In 1848, the English Pre Raphaelite group of painters established the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), which admired the simplicity of line and the vibrant areas of colour found in early Italian paintings, pre-dating Raphael, as well as in 15th-century Flemish art.
The rigid rules of classical art, combined with the social unrest arising from widespread industrialisation, created an environment that inspired a rebellious group of young British artists to express their discontent through Pre Raphaelite art, which was not preferred by the academic approach taught at the Royal Academy in the mid-19th century.
What Is Pre Raphaelite?
The mid-nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelite style began as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a self-named band of reactionary male artists who met as students at the London Royal Academy in 1848. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais were united in their condemnation of the Royal Academy’s old-fashioned teaching methods.
The other rebellious young artists joined them, including critic William Michael Rossetti (Dante Gabriel’s brother), the painter James Collinson, the writer Frederic George Stephens, the sculptor Thomas Woolner, and the painter James Collinson in London, who formed a secret society with the aim of creating a new British art.
They called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The artists Ford Madox Brown and William Dyce, who served in part as mentors to the younger men, eventually adapted their work to the Pre-Raphaelite style.
Pre-Raphaelites Meaning
The Pre Raphaelites were a group of artists from the mid-nineteenth century who drew inspiration from the simplicity of pre-Renaissance Italian art. The term "Pre Raphaelite" means "before Raphael," reflecting their rejection of the art of their time that idealised figures in elaborate settings and celebrated the work of Raphael.
Instead, the Pre Raphaelites favoured a close observation of nature and rejected established academic conventions. They often based their subjects on literature and were closely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
The Pre-Raphaelites, meaning the name “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood” (PRB), emphasised the medieval themes for which this group of young artists became well-known. Its prominent members included John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Among other women, Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris served as female models for Pre Raphaelite art.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was established in London in 1848 by seven young artistic radicals who opposed the ‘loose’ techniques of some 18th-century painters. They favoured an explicit finish and intentional simplicity that they admired in the works of artists who preceded Raphael (1483-1520), the Classical painter of the Italian Renaissance.
Art from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is characterised by vivid detail, symbolism, and tightly regulated brushstrokes. They aimed to play with the techniques and ideas of Renaissance and Medieval art while challenging the principles of classical Victorian art. The Brotherhood continued to uphold the belief that mimesis, or the representation of nature, along with history painting, was an essential component of the intended function of art.
Pre Raphaelite Paintings
Pre raphaelite paintings include:
- “Ophelia” (1851-52) by John Everett Millais,
- "The Lady of Shalott" (1886-1905) by William Holman Hunt,
- "The Beloved ('The Bride')" 1865-66 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
- “The Awakening Conscience”(1853) by William Holman Hunt,
- “Dante’s Dream” (1871) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and
- “Christ in the House with his Parents”(1849-50) by John Millais.
Pre Raphaelite Art History
In early 19th-century Britain, several events related to Romanticism contributed to the emergence of the Pre Raphaelite Movement. One major factor was the response to industrialisation, which began to accelerate in the late 18th century.
By the 1830s, Britain had become the most technologically advanced country in the world. Romantic critics sought ways to reflect such changes and improve upon them, as government laws struggled to keep pace with the rapid technological developments.
In the 1840s, artists Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais were impressed by two remarkable early Renaissance masterpieces displayed at London’s National Gallery: Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434) and Lorenzo Monaco’s San Benedetto Altarpiece (1407–09).
The young artists admired the rich, jewel-like colours, photographic realism, and subtle Symbolist references found in these works. They adopted the name "Pre-Raphaelites" to reflect their appreciation for early Renaissance art created before Raphael's time, which they believed had a deeper connection to nature and the real world.
Another significant influence on the Pre Raphaelites was the rising trend of Romantic landscape painting, exemplified by artists such as John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, and Joseph Mallord William Turner. These artists captured the sublime energy and emotion of the natural world, further shaping the Pre Raphaelite aesthetic.
Pre-Raphaelites Art Movement Overview
Joshua Reynolds was a painter who admired the High Renaissance, particularly the Italian artist Raphael, and helped found the Royal Academy in 1768. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood objected to the great influence of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), rather they found inspiration in poetry and Medieval literature from historic sources in a way that became highly influential in the church and secular art during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), and sought a high moral purpose in their work, whether it depicted the old or modern world.
In 1848, John Everett Millais was 19, Gabriel Rossetti 20, and Holman Hunt 21; the Pre-Raphaelites worked like a secret society. They were young artists who wanted to break the rulebook, even if it meant going back to move forward. The art movement highlighted modern and societal issues that might be addressed by combining poetry, literature, religion, fine art, and other genres.
The Brotherhood enthusiastically accepted and supported Pre Raphaelite women artists.
Several paintings were displayed in 1849 at London’s Royal Academy, and the Free Exhibition displayed the mysterious letters “P.R.B.” alongside the artists’ signatures.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a relatively short-lived group that lasted from 1848 to 1857. The difference began to appear in 1850, when Millais displayed "Christ in the House of His Parents" (1849-50) at the Royal Academy.
The painting attracted huge criticism, most notably from the English writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870), who expressed Millais’s depiction of Mary as 'so horrible in her ugliness that she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster…' The scandal led to conflict amongst members of the group, who chose not to exhibit together in the future.
However, art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) remained their strongest supporter, and it is believed that the Aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century was also a continuation of many Pre Raphaelite ideas, but with a greater emphasis on beauty and art rather than moral, political or social concerns.
Favourite Pre-Raphaelite Paintings
Some of the Favourite Pre Raphaelite paintings are described here –
- One of the famous Pre Raphaelite art works is "Dante’s Dream" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. An adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s lesser-known work, La Vita Nuova (“The New Life”), depicts him being led into a dream by his eternal lover, Beatrice Portinari.
- The Holman Hunt's The Eve of Saint Agnes predated the Brotherhood, but the first works to be created under the banner of the movement with the initials 'PRB' were by all three of the core trio – Holman Hunt, Millais and Rossetti. Millais exhibited the painting Isabella at the Royal Academy in 1849.
- It is now in Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery. The Eve of Saint Agnes, based on the poem by the Romantic poet John Keats, was considered one of the finest works by fellow painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Fellow aspiring painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti saw it and declared it to be the finest of works on display.
- It led to Rossetti and Holman Hunt striking up a friendship, and they began to share lodgings in London, financed by the sale of the painting. Holman Hunt, like Millais, exhibited his first PRB offering at the Royal Academy in 1849. It had the improbably long title Rienzi, vowing to obtain justice for the death of his young brother, slain in a skirmish between the Colonna and the Orsini factions – often known today just as Rienzi.
- In 1850, Millais exhibited three works at the Academy. The first was a portrait of a man and his grandchild, the second took a theme from Shakespeare, showing Ferdinand lured by Ariel in The Tempest. The third was a religious subject, and this painting is today titled Christ in the House of His Parents.
- Rossetti was a big fan of Keats, but his first Pre Raphaelite painting took a religious story as its subject. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin is an imagined scene from the life of Jesus's mother, as recounted in the apocryphal Gospel of James (i.e. it's not in the Bible). Mary is shown working on an embroidery with her mother, Anne. Rossetti used his sister, Christina, as the model for Mary, and his mother, Frances, as the model for Saint Anne.
- Aside from The Order of Release, Millais is best known for his 1851-1852 painting Ophelia, depicting a character from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet who, after learning that the titular prince murdered her father, throws herself into a river. Though seemingly dressed in time-appropriate garb, Ophelia is not wearing a corset, that ubiquitous symbol of Victorian squeamishness. However, colourful plants and flowers were abundant, floating around her.
Pre-Raphaelite Art Prints
At London’s Royal Academy and Free Exhibition shows of 1849, several paintings were exhibited with the cryptic initials “P.R.B.” along with the artists’ signatures; among these were Rienzi (private collection) by William Holman Hunt (1827–1910), Isabella (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) by John Everett Millais (1829–1896), and The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (Tate, London) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882).
These canvases, though diverse in subject, embodied the Brotherhood’s initial aims through their perceptive observation of nature and depiction of subjects that lead the viewer to contemplate moral issues of justice, familial relationships, righteousness, and the struggle between purity and corruption.
The Pre Raphaelite Art Prints are now in a private collection, but it's the first to show Holman Hunt's adoption of the PRB initials in his work. The group also tried to publish their journal, called The Germ. However, it only ran for four issues in 1850 and was unsuccessful.
The Pre Raphaelites were also interested in the decorative arts. In 1861, Burne-Jones and Rossetti joined Morris’s new design firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (Morris & Company in 1875), which produced murals, stained glass, furniture, textiles, jewellery, and wall coverings inspired by botanical motifs.
Pre- Raphaelite Poets
- “The Woodspurge” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti is an expressive poem where the poet writes in quatrains and uses natural imagery the Brotherhood in the lines – “ The wind flapp’d loose, the wind was still, Shaken out dead from tree and hill: I had walk’d on at the wind’s will, I sat now, for the wind was still.” The language in these lines, and the others that make up the poem, is straightforward and forceful. They clearly depict a moment the speaker was experiencing intensely.
- Dream Land is a short poem by Christina Rossetti, often cited as a notable example of a piece inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's work. The poet describes a woman’s escape from the pain of the real world. The woman goes on a search to find a place that allows her to separate herself from the rest of the world. This new existence flourishes in a place that’s heaven-like and not dissimilar to death. It says – “Where sunless rivers weep, their waves into the deep, she sleeps a charmèd sleep: Awake her not.”
- The Haystack in the Floods by William Morris is a relatively long poem; the poet demonstrates some of the characteristics of the movement, including a focus on nature, clear and evocative imagery, and a sense of beauty. It states – “Had she come all the way for this; To part at last without a kiss? Yea, had she borne the dirt and rain; That her own eyes might see him slain; Beside the haystack in the floods?”
Pre Raphaelite Art Characteristics
The artwork emphasised vivid details, symbolism, and tight brushstrokes. The characteristics of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood art include
Realism - The paintings featured sharp attention to detail and highly realistic lighting, creating nearly photographic depictions of scenes in nature or well-lit interiors. The public did not respond well to Pre-Raphaelite paintings because they thought the characters were unlike traditional images, for example, Millais’s “The Girlhood of Mary Virgin,” which created a sickly-looking flame-haired Mary, who the devout Victorians saw as blasphemous, as it altered the “perfect” image of the Virgin Mary.
Rejected excessive use of bitumen - Hunt and Millais painted over a wet white backdrop with delicate glazes.
Symbolism - Pre Raphaelite works may contain something to employ a fine old Shakespearean word or a weed pushing through a crack in a rock wall; a 'damozel' carefully outfitted with seven stars, three lilies, and a single white rose. Many details were symbolic, added to create layers of meaning.
Tight brushstrokes - The brushstrokes were skillfully concealed, which improved the scene’s clarity. The PRB rejected the excessive use of bitumen. The objectivity in the representations of nature, achieved through precise brushstrokes, was vital rather than opting for a polished aesthetic. It added realism to mythical stories that their audiences were already familiar with.
The Pre-Raphaelites disliked formulaic academic art and amassed supporters, including art critic John Ruskin, who became their most supportive critic, while Charles Dickens pushed back against them.
What Differentiates Pre-Raphaelite from Academic Art?
In the 18th century, the influential Académie des Beaux-Arts dominated the French art world. The rigorous training at the Academic Art centred on mastering human anatomy through life drawing, linear perspective, and history painting. These principles aimed to instil moral virtues and cultural ideals through art.
On the other hand, the Pre-Raphaelites valued realism and technique, incorporating finely rendered details, true-to-life anatomy, and the natural interplay of light and shadow. They also took inspiration from religion and classical mythology, but the real difference between the two has nothing to do with how they painted; rather, what they painted.
The Pre Raphaelite paintings featured a new female archetype that was tall, loud and empowered, challenging the submissive, idealised Victorian stereotype. The flowing long raven hair, pale skin and red lips of the Pre-Raphaelite woman became a defining feature of their art.
What Are Pre-Raphaelite Ideas?
In the Pre-Raphaelite ideas, truth was about staying true to the thoughts and vision in the head and heart. One can display emotional states and hidden meanings by remaining figurative.
Biblical and medieval literary themes were popular subjects, along with literary and poetic subjects, particularly those associated with love and death.
The vitality and freshness of the paintings reflected a deeper moral conscience running through their art, calling for a simpler way of life more in tune with the natural world amidst the overwhelming effects of industrialisation in nineteenth-century Britain.
The Pre-Raphaelites sought to convey the works of Tennyson, Shakespeare, and Keats to the people. Rossetti initially accepted it, but soon began using his poems and paintings to sort out his own moral and spiritual dilemmas and uncertainties. Unlike Hunt, he felt neither equipped nor inclined to lead anyone in the paths of righteousness. His works reflected an inner dialogue and offered no real solutions.
They valued completeness but did not just decorate canvases with pleasing combinations of colour or put rhymes upon a page. They opened windows to other worlds. These are small windows, offering only glimpses of what lies beyond, capturing brief moments in time. The rest is left to the imagination.
Pre-Raphaelite beauty is fragile, ethereal, a wash of pure colour somehow not faded by time. It holds a melancholy quality, and yet it comforts. Victorian society viewed women as inferior to men on both physical and intellectual levels. The Pre-Raphaelites centred their art on women and the hardships they faced. By frequently employing a medieval backdrop, the artists drew attention to societal issues, like adultery and prostitution, where women suffered more.
The best Pre-Raphaelite works practically vibrate with honesty, depicting the artist's vision; they lost their heart, their passion, and their true beauty, and some works may bring tears to the eyes of the tenderhearted.
In brief, the artworks of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood can be characterised by four key ideas.
1. They have original and truthful ideas to express;
2. They carefully examine nature to know how to express it ;
3. To sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is orthodox and self-promoting and practised by reduplication; an
4. The most indispensable of all is to produce thoroughly pleasing pictures and statues.
Who Was the Most Famous Pre-Raphaelite?
The Pre-Raphaelite poets include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and William Morris. The most famous member of the Brotherhood is possibly John Everett Millais, closely followed by the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (a pupil of Ford Madox Brown).
William Holman Hunt and the sculptor Thomas Woolner were more factual in their depiction of Medieval and modern life. However, Rossetti’s close follower, Edward Burne-Jones, remained closely tied to the fantasy world of Medieval art and literature, earning him admiration in Paris as a poetic artist who influenced the ‘Symbolist’ movement in the late 19th century.
The poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti continues to be a subject of scholarly investigation. Their adoption of the name Pre-Raphaelite expressed the artists' admiration for what they saw as the straightforward depiction of nature typical of Italian painting before the High Renaissance, particularly before the time of Raphael. They were inspired by Italian art from the 14th and 15th centuries.
What Are Your Feelings About the Pre-Raphaelites?
The Brotherhood rejected the British Royal Academy’s preferences and teaching methods, instead emphasising the importance of experience and truth over traditional learning.
- They depicted nature, and remained loyal to its appearance, even to the point of ugliness.
- The Pre Raphaelites sought to portray art that was as realistic as possible, aiming to depict the world as closely as possible.
- They were famous for their interest in realism, symbolism, and revival of medieval and literary subjects.
- They had a tough time gaining respect, and the movement was short-lived; however, it had a profound influence on the course of literature and art during the Victorian period.
What Does Pre Raphaelite Beauty Mean?
The Pre Raphaelites put women and beauty front and centre in their work.
The Pre Raphaelite beauty challenged the gender norms, and new stereotypes arose out of the ashes of the old.” Rossetti’s work, in particular, lauded a particular form of beauty that not all women could or wished to attain: voluptuous, aloof, and if not objectified—fetishised.
The artists could explore the social anxieties of the real-life models and muses.
Far from being idealised into an unattainable emblem of beauty, they were real women - the wives, mistresses and friends of the men who painted them, as English writer John Ruskin (1819-1900) noted, 'Every Pre-Raphaelite figure, however studied in expression, is a true portrait of some living person.'
The Pre-Raphaelites depicted women as passionate creatures, even if such behaviour is, in many of their stories, punished.
They depicted powerful women, central characters, and temptresses who would hold the viewers ' gaze in this exhibition.
