In the mid-19th Century, a group of emerging English artists formed a secret society they called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) whose goals were to (i) counter the ideals popularized during the High Renaissance and (ii) re-invigorate Europe's 19th-Century art scene.
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| (Screenshot from https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-pre-raphaelite-brotherhood/) |
In this post I detail the environment from which the PRB sprung as well as discuss the movement, its members, its art, and its legacy.
British Mid-19th-Century Art Environment
A number of factors in the British mid-19th-century art environment had direct bearings on, and contributed to, the birth of the PRB. They were The British Royal Academy, the visual appearance of the art of the day, and the writings of the art critic John Ruskin.
The Royal Academy
According to visual-arts-cork.com,
The French Academy had a virtual monopoly on the teaching, production, and exhibition of visual art in France -- most other academies were in the same position ... Academy schools taught art according to a strict set of conventions and rules ... Until 1863, classes inside the academy were based entirely on the practice of figure drawing -- that is, drawing the works of the Old Masters. Copying such masterpieces was considered to be the only means of absorbing the correct principles of contour, light, and shade.
As it relates specifically to the British Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, its first President, directed students to copy Raphael's drawings as part of their studies in the hope that they would be inspired by "the divine spark" of his genius. Students were expected to learn their craft by rote.
The Academy preferred Victorian subjects and styles and adhered to a definition of beauty drawn from the Italian Renaissance and Classical art. The Academy also had a penchant for genre and portrait paintings.
Darkening Effect on British Paintings
In the early 19th century, the majority of the works produced by British artists were dark in coloration, partly in conformance with the masterpieces of the 17th century and partly due to the use of bitumen as a paint component. Bitumen is a tarry material which creates a darkening effect; that darkening effect is compounded over time. A late 18th century painting exhibiting this characteristic is Fuseli's The Shepherd's Dream.
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| The Shepherd's Dream, 1793 Henry Fuseli |
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was one of Britain's most prolific art critics and, according to artuk.org, "a significant literary art figure who symbolizes the Victorian era" in that he was, at once, "a painter, photographer, botanist, early environmentalist, philanthropist, and social reformer ..."
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| John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) |
In Volume 1 of his Modern Painters (1843), Ruskin launched an assault on the artisitc establishment by questioning the rules that Sir Joshua Reynolds had established at the Royal Academy. In the same tome he "encouraged landscape painters to return to nature rather than merely imitating the painted landscapes of the Old Masters."
In the second and third volumes of his book he leveraged the critical rediscovery of Gothic Middle Age paintings by writing about painters such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, and Benizzo Gozzoli. Ruskin believed that these medieval religious artists could provide "an inspiring model for the art of the 'modern age'."
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The secret society -- inspired by the writings of Ruskin -- was established in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; shortly thereafter they were joined by James Collinson, Fredric George Stephen, William Michael Rossetti (poet and critic), and Thomas Wolner (Sculptor). The aims of the society were to:
- Revive British art, making it as dynamic, powerful, and creative as the late medieval and early Renaissance works created before the time of Raphael
- Find ways of expressing both nature and true emotion in art.
- Have genuine ideas to express
- Study nature attentively so as to know how to express it
- Sympathize with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote
- Produce thoroughly good pictures and statutes.
Ruskin was very public in his support of the PRB, writing letters to the Times in 1851 and 1854 defending them against the barbs of critics and again in 1853 when he recommended their works in his Edinburgh Lectures.
PRB Art
The group worked in the shadows for over a year, foregoing lessons at the Academy for meetings at their London homes. Their initial public reveal was in 1849 when they exhibited Isabella (Millais) and Rienzi (Hunt) at the Academy. In addition to the painters' names, the canvasses were also marked with the initials PRB.
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| Isabella, 1848 - 49 John Everett Millais |
The Brotherhood announced itself more formally in a January 1850 publication, named Germ, where they shared their work and views. The publication was subsequently renamed but was cancelled after two issues.
The PRB paintings were initially religious but they also utilized subjects from literature and poetry and explored topics dealing with contemporary social issues. Each artist brought his own style to the table but there were some notable commonalities between the paintings (Kelly Richmond-Abdou):
- A naturalistic and detailed approach to art
- Interest in narrative subject matter
- A preference for women with long red hair
- Sparkling colors
- Wild tangles of countryside painted in microscopic detail.
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| Ophelia, 1849 John Everett Millais |
Countering the British painting’s penchant for darkness, PRB efforts are known for their “stunning luminosity.” Stephanie Chatfield details the recipe behind the lightness here.
The Unravelling of the PRB
John Millais produced some of PRBs most enduring works of art but he was also front and center in the events that eventually led to the society's demise. First, his 1850 painting Christ in the House of his Parents was criticized as being blasphemous because Mary was depicted as "other than an idealized, beautiful woman." The criticism was led by no less a personage than Charles Dickens, a literary heavyweight at that time (and at any time, for that matter).
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| Christ in the House of his Parents, 1850 John Everett Millais |
The second controversy revolved around Millais’ affair, and subsequent marriage, to Effie Gray, the wife of John Ruskin, the PRBs biggest supporter. Ruskin was not happy with this turn of events and was sparing in his praise of the group post that period.
James Collinson was the first to leave the group which eventually dissolved by 1853.
PRB Legacy
Given its brevity, PRB is more akin to a moment than a movement. That being said, it did have a bit of a tail. Founding member Daniel Gabriel Rossetti ushered in the second form of Pre-Raphaelism when he met two of his young followers (Walter Morris and Edward Burns-Jones) at Oxford. They became his apprentices and together they promoted an even more medievalist form of Pre-Raphaelism - Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelism. "Aesthetics lasted well into the 20th century with artists such as John William Waterhouse, Aubrey Beardsley and Gustave Moreau underlining the importance of the Pre-Raphaelite legacy for other art movements such as Symbolism and Aestheticism."
Rosetti would eventually join his mentee William Morris at the latter's design firm, extending the Pre-Raphaelite ideas into the world of commerce with goods such as furniture and jewelry and into the Arts and Craft Movement.
The Pre-Raphaelite movement also had a direct influence upon the Decadence movement of the late 19th century and several famous poets to include Gerard Manley Hopkins and W.B. Yeats.
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