The Pre-Raphaelites Movement Overview

"We sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parading and learned by rote"

1 of 17

"A man is born an artist as a hippopotamus is born a hippopotamus; and you can no more make yourself one than you can make yourself a giraffe."

2 of 17

"Art made by the people for the people, as a joy to the maker and the user."

3 of 17

"I mean by a picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any light that ever shone - in a land no one can define, or remember, only desire."

4 of 17

Edward Burne-Jones

"There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals."

5 of 17

"To have read the greatest works of any great poet, to have beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter or musician, is a possession added to the best things of life."

6 of 17

Algernon Charles Swinburne

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

7 of 17

"Only this is true, that beauty is very beautiful, and softens, and inspires, and rouses, and lifts up, and never fails."

8 of 17

Edward Burne-Jones

"I have said as much as that the aim of art was to destroy the curse of labour by making work the pleasurable satisfaction of our impulse towards energy, and giving to that energy hope of producing something worth its exercise."

9 of 17

"The more materialistic science becomes, the more angels shall I paint. Their wings are my protest in favor of the immortality of the soul."

10 of 17

Edward Burne-Jones

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty"

11 of 17

"I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few."

12 of 17

"I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?"

13 of 17

"My work is the embodiment of dreams in one form or another."

14 of 17

"go to Nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and trustingly, having no other thoughts but how best to penetrate her meaning, and remember her instructions; rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing; believing all things to be right and good, and rejoicing always in the truth"

15 of 17

"Women are important in the Pre-Raphaelite movement. But while their faces are seen everywhere - in oil paintings, watercolors, drawings - their voices are never heard."

16 of 17

Jan Marsh

"This seclusion of the artist with his work, sometimes misconceived as a selfish thing, is in truth as needful a tool as any, if a vision is to be made clear to others."

17 of 17

Georgiana Burne-Jones

Summary of The Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelites opposed the dominance of the British Royal Academy, which championed a narrow range of idealized or moral subjects and conventional definitions of beauty drawn from the early Italian Renaissance and Classical art. In contrast, the Pre-Raphaelites took inspiration from an earlier (pre-Raphaelite - before the artist Raphael) period, that is, the centuries preceding the High Renaissance. They believed painters before the Renaissance provided a model for depicting nature and the human body realistically, rather than idealistically, and that collective guilds of medieval craftspeople offered an alternative vision of artistic community to mid-19^th-century academic approaches.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

The Pre-Raphaelites rejected not only the British Royal Academy's preference for Victorian subjects and styles, but also its teaching methods. They believed that rote learning had replaced truth and experience. Theirs was one of the first major challenges to "official" art, and their early "institutional critique" is a crucial piece of the history of modern art in Britain.
Above all, Pre-Raphaelitism espoused Naturalism: the detailed study of nature by the artist and fidelity to its appearance, even when this risked showing ugliness. It also named a preference for natural forms as the basis for patterns and decoration that offered an antidote to the industrial designs of the machine age.
As part of their reaction to the negative impact of industrialization, Pre-Raphaelites turned to the medieval period as a stylistic model and as an ideal for the synthesis of art and life in the applied arts. Their revival of medieval styles, stories, and methods of production greatly influenced the development of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau design movements.

Overview of The Pre-Raphaelites

Detail of <i>The Beloved</i> (1865-6), also known as <i>The Bride</i>, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

"Beauty without the beloved is like a sword through the heart," Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote. His emphasis upon ideal female beauty made him a maverick among the Pre-Raphaelites.

Beginnings and Development

Concepts, Trends, & Related Topics

Later Developments and Legacy

Key Artists

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Quick view Read more
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, and painter who cofounded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Rossetti was famous for his paintings of medieval subjects, nature, and women, and his relationships with the models who sat for them.
William Holman Hunt

Quick view Read more
William Holman Hunt was an English painter that co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His works are distinguished by their attention to detail, vibrant colors, and elaborate symbolism.
John Everett Millais

Quick view Read more
John Millais Everett was an English painter and illustrator, and one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Millais earned both acclaim and a reputation for scandal because of his realistic depiction of relious figures.
William Morris

Quick view Read more
William Morris was an English textile designer, writer, and social activist who was the father of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Julia Margaret Cameron

Quick view Read more
Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer and one of the few female practicioners of the Pre-Raphaelite tradition.

Do Not Miss

Arts and Crafts Movement

Quick view Read more
The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international design movement that originated in Great Britain and had a strong following in the United States. It advocated truth to materials and traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration. It also proposed economic and social reform and has been seen as essentially anti-industrial.
Aesthetic Art

Quick view Read more
The Aesthetic Movement emerged first in Britain in the late-nineteenth century. Inspired by a rejection of previous styles in both the fine and decorative arts, its adherents were committed to the pursuit of beauty and the doctrine of 'art for art's sake'. Believing that art had declined in an era of utility and rationalism, they claimed that art deserved to be judged on its own terms alone.
Pictorialism

Quick view Read more
The dominant movement in early photography, Pictorialism refers to manipulated images that include lack of sharp focus, using colors other than black and white, and changes on the surface of the work.
Gothic Art and Architecture

Quick view Read more
Gothic art flourished in Western Europe with monumental sculptures and stained-glass window decorated cathedrals - marked by the pointed Gothic arch.

Important Art and Artists of The Pre-Raphaelites

The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848-49)

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

This painting by Rossetti was the first Pre-Raphaelite work to appear in public. It featured the secretive initials "PRB," indicating that the artist was a member of the newly established Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In the painting, the Virgin Mary appears at home with her mother, St. Anne, and an angel, while her father tends the garden outside the window.

The style is deliberately modeled on late Medieval and early Renaissance paintings, which were highly unpopular in Victorian England at the time. The composition defies the techniques of traditional perspective, with a notable flatness between the foreground and background, which foreshadows later artists' rejections of classical ways of depicting realistic space.

As art historian Jason Rosenfeld points out, "Rossetti's picture represents a revivalist style that draws on early Renaissance paintings from Northern Europe and Italy, blended with a comprehensive religious symbolism expressed in a profusion of clearly observed details and natural forms, such as the lilies redolent of the Virgin Mary's purity and the lamp evoking piety." Rossetti adds another touch of realism by portraying the likenesses of his mother and sister as Mary and Saint Anne; at the time this was considered blasphemous given the standard dependence on classical models for the Holy Family. Rossetti's daring combined with his Medievalist style was highly controversial and drew attention to the limits of the "Grand Manner" that was still celebrated in the British Academy. In effect, Rossetti was proposing a radical alternative way to represent even the most sacred of subjects.

Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation) (1849-50)

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Rossetti's painting of the Annunciation is still mystifying viewers in the 21st century. The angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary of her impending miraculous pregnancy is one of the most familiar and popular subjects in religious art, but Rossetti's interpretation of the moment is utterly singular and was criticized for its realism when it was first exhibited.

Taking his inspiration from early Italian frescoes, like those by the monk Fra Angelico, Rossetti chose a simplified palette and composition. But within these self-imposed boundaries, and despite the inclusion of many recognizable symbols of the Virgin (the lilies, etc.), the scene departs totally from traditional depictions. The artist used his sister as a model for the Virgin, highlighting her red hair and the innocent, fragile state of a young woman just awakening from sleep. Since the Renaissance the Annunciation had been used as an example for women's piety and virginity, but the modern expression on Rossetti's Virgin's face and her posture seem disturbed and mysterious and are difficult to interpret as pious. This uncertainty introduced into a sacred scene is typical of Rossetti, and it is above all his Naturalism that allows the viewer to experience such a profound connection to the humanity of the normally idealized Virgin.

Ophelia (1851-2)

Artist: John Everett Millais

Ophelia is arguably both John Everett Millais' masterpiece and the most iconic work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Painted when he was only 22 years old, Millais worked for months in the open air in the countryside, composing the background with painstaking detail. In addition to flowers and boughs, Millais included reeds, the muddy bank, and a water rat.

Elizabeth Siddall, a cutlery-maker's daughter whose unusual looks were highly regarded by Pre-Raphaelite artists, modeled the figure of Ophelia, whose death is described in Shakespeare's Hamlet by Queen Gertrude. Ophelia, having gone mad from Hamlet's rejection, sinks slowly into the river while singing. Millais posed his model in a bathtub filled with water to accurately capture the effect of water on her clothes and hair. Famously, the model nearly died after the candles warming the water went out and she caught pneumonia. Well beyond earlier Victorian genre paintings, in Ophelia Millais strived to recreate a moment from a fictional work as it really happened, in a way that is highly realistic, while being simultaneously romantic and dramatic.

More Important Art

William Holman Hunt: Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep) (1852)

William Holman Hunt: The Awakening Conscience (1853)

William Holman Hunt: Light of the World (1853-54)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Lady Lilith (1866-68)

Julia Margaret Cameron: Call, I Follow, I Follow, Let Me Die! (1867)

Edward Burne-Jones: Laus Veneris (1873-8)

May Morris: Kelmscott Manor Bed Hangings (1891-3)

View all Important Art

Useful Resources on The Pre-Raphaelites

Books

websites

articles

video clips

Books

The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet.

View more books

websites

articles

video clips

Do more

Content compiled and written by Anna Souter

Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Antony Todd

"The Pre-Raphaelites Movement Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Anna Souter
Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Antony Todd
Available from:
First published on 29 Jan 2019. Updated and modified regularly
[Accessed ]

Copy to clipboard