The Pre-Rafaelite Brotherhood
In the middle of the 19th century, a small group of young artists in England rebelled against what they saw as Raphael's theatricality and the Victorian hypocrisy and pomp of the academic art tradition. Their ambition was to bring English art back to the simplicities of the early 15th century. The friends decided to form a secret society named the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Their adoption of the name Pre-Raphaelite expressed their admiration for what they saw as the direct and uncomplicated depiction of nature typical of Italian painting before the time of Raphael.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed by three Royal Academy students: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a gifted poet as well as a painter, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, all under 25 years of age. The Brotherhood immediately began to produce highly convincing and significant works. They painted only serious - usually religious or romantic – subjects and their style evolved sharp lighting, a clear atmosphere, and a near-photographic reproduction of minute details. They also frequently introduced a private poetic symbolism into their representations of biblical subjects and medieval themes. Vitality and freshness of vision are the most admirable qualities of these early Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
The group initially caused outrage when the existence of their secret brotherhood became known after their first works were exhibited in 1849. They also offended with their heavily religious and realist themes that were so unlike the popular historical paintings. However, the Royal Academy continued to exhibit Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and after 1852 they became popular.
By 1854 the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had gone their individual ways.In the late 1850s Dante Gabriel Rossetti became associated with the younger painters Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris and moved closer to a sensual and almost mystical romanticism. Millais, the most technically gifted painter of
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed by three Royal Academy students: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a gifted poet as well as a painter, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, all under 25 years of age. The Brotherhood immediately began to produce highly convincing and significant works. They painted only serious - usually religious or romantic – subjects and their style evolved sharp lighting, a clear atmosphere, and a near-photographic reproduction of minute details. They also frequently introduced a private poetic symbolism into their representations of biblical subjects and medieval themes. Vitality and freshness of vision are the most admirable qualities of these early Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
The group initially caused outrage when the existence of their secret brotherhood became known after their first works were exhibited in 1849. They also offended with their heavily religious and realist themes that were so unlike the popular historical paintings. However, the Royal Academy continued to exhibit Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and after 1852 they became popular.
By 1854 the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had gone their individual ways.In the late 1850s Dante Gabriel Rossetti became associated with the younger painters Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris and moved closer to a sensual and almost mystical romanticism. Millais, the most technically gifted painter of