Pre-Raphaelites

"Proserpine" - 1877, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Some of my favorite work is done by the artist of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. What I am sharing with you today comes from the book, "Essential Pre-Raphaelites", by Lucinda Hawksley.

"In 1848 a group of disillusioned artists, comprising the Rossettis, John EverttMillais, William Holman Hunt, Frederic Stephens, Thomas Woolner, and James Collinson, formed the Pre-Raphalite Brotherhood. Initially they were ridiculed in the art world for their pretensions and subject matter, but ten years after their foundation no self-respecting Victorian would admit to being ignorant of Pre-Raphaelite art.

The term Pre-Raphaelite is commonly used to refer to examples of art and design produced throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. The Pre-Raphaelite artist developed a style of painting in which an intense brilliance was achieved by applying thin layers of oil paint over a white "ground". It was in 1849 that the first paintings executed in this manner appeared at exhibition.

The movement later began to change direction as new influences were brought to bear on the group; Dante Gabriel Rossetti came to the fore alongside artists such as Walter Howell Beverell and Edward Burne-Jones, as well as William Morris, the founding father of the Arts and Crafts movement."

I hope you enjoy viewing a few of my favorites:

"Paolo and Francesca", 1888, by Charles Edward Halle


"LaGhirlandata", 1873, by Dante Gabriel Rosetti


"The Awakening Conscience", 1854, by Willam Holman Hunt