The name "Pre-Raphaelites" was supposed to denote a spiritual relationship with the Florentine artists of the era early Renaissance, that is, artists “before Raphael” and Michelangelo: Perugino, Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini.

The most prominent members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement were the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the painters William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane, and John William Waterhouse.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The first stage in the development of Pre-Raphaelitism was the emergence of the so-called “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood”, which initially consisted of seven “brothers”: J. E. Millais, Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his younger brother Michael Rossetti, Thomas Woolner and the painters Stevens and James Collinson.

D. G. Rossetti - The Youth of the Virgin Mary, 1848-1849

The history of the Brotherhood begins in 1848, when Academy students Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had previously seen and admired Hunt’s work, met at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. Hunt helps Rossetti complete Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848-49), which was exhibited in 1849, and he introduces Rossetti to John Everett Millais, a young genius who entered the Academy at the age of 11. and years. They not only became friends, but found that they shared each other's views on modern art: in particular, they believed that modern English painting had reached a dead end and was dying, and in the best possible way to revive it will be a return to the sincerity and simplicity of early Italian art (that is, art before Raphael, whom the Pre-Raphaelites considered the founder of academicism).

Augustus Egga - Past and Present, 1837

This is how the idea of ​​​​creating a secret society called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born - a society in opposition to official artistic movements. Also invited to the group from the very beginning were James Collinson (a student at the Academy and Christina Rossetti's fiancé), the sculptor and poet Thomas Woolner, the young nineteen-year-old artist and later critic Frederick Stephens, and Rossetti's younger brother William Rossetti, who followed in the footsteps of his older brother into art school. but he did not show any particular vocation for art and, in the end, became a famous art critic and writer. Madox Brown was close to the German Nazarenes, so he, sharing the ideas of the Brotherhood, refused to join the group.

In Rossetti’s painting “The Youth of the Virgin Mary,” the three conventional letters P. R. B. (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) appear for the first time; the same initials marked “Isabella” by Millet and “Rienzi” by Hunt. Members of the Brotherhood also created their own magazine, called Rostock, although it only existed from January to April 1850. Its editor was William Michael Rossetti (brother of Dante Gabriel Rossetti).

Pre-Raphaelites and Academicism

Before the advent of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the development of British art was determined mainly by the activities of the Royal Academy of Arts. Like any other official institution, it was very jealous and cautious about innovations, preserving the traditions of academicism. Hunt, Millet and Rossetti stated in the Rostock magazine that they did not want to depict people and nature as abstractly beautiful, and events as far from reality, and, finally, they were tired of the convention of official, “exemplary” mythological, historical and religious works.

D. G. Rossetti - The Holy Grail, 1860

The Pre-Raphaelites abandoned academic principles of work and believed that everything should be painted from life. They chose friends or relatives as models. For example, in the painting “The Youth of the Virgin Mary,” Rossetti depicted his mother and sister Christina, and looking at the canvas “Isabella,” contemporaries recognized Millet’s friends and acquaintances from the Brotherhood. During the creation of the painting “Ophelia,” he forced Elizabeth Siddal to lie in a filled bath for several hours. It was winter, so Siddal caught a serious cold and later sent Milla a doctors bill for £50.

D. E. Millet - Ophelia, 1852

Moreover, the Pre-Raphaelites changed the relationship between artist and model - they became equal partners. If the heroes of Reynolds' paintings are almost always dressed according to their social status, then Rossetti could paint a queen from a saleswoman, a goddess from a groom's daughter. Prostitute Fanny Cornforth posed for him for the painting Lady Lilith.

D. G. Rossetti - Lady Lilith, 1868

Members of the Brotherhood were from the outset irritated by the influence on modern art of artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Wilkie and Benjamin Haydon. They even nicknamed Sir Joshua (president of the Academy of Arts) “Sir Slosh” (from the English slosh - “slap in the mud”) for his sloppy painting technique and style, as they believed, completely borrowed from academic mannerism. The situation was aggravated by the fact that at that time artists often used bitumen, and it makes the image cloudy and dark. In contrast, the Pre-Raphaelites wanted to return to the high detail and deep colors of the Quattrocento era painters. They abandoned “cabinet” painting and began to paint in nature, and also made changes to the traditional painting technique. The Pre-Raphaelites outlined a composition on a primed canvas, applied a layer of whitewash and removed the oil from it with blotting paper, and then wrote on top of the whitewash with translucent paints. The chosen technique allowed them to achieve bright, fresh tones and turned out to be so durable that their works have been preserved in their original form to this day.

Dealing with criticism

At first, the work of the Pre-Raphaelites was received quite warmly, but soon severe criticism and ridicule fell. Millet's overly naturalistic painting "Christ in the Parental House", exhibited in 1850, caused such a wave of indignation that Queen Victoria asked to be taken to Buckingham Palace for independent inspection.

D. E. Millet - Christ in his parents' house, 1850

Rossetti's painting "The Annunciation", painted with deviations from the Christian canon, also caused attacks from public opinion. At an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1850, Rossetti, Hunt and Millais failed to sell a single painting. In a review published in the weekly Athenaeum, critic Frank Stone wrote:

“Ignoring all the great things that were created by the old masters, this school, to which Rossetti belongs, trudges with uncertain steps towards its early predecessors. This is archeology, devoid of any usefulness and turned into doctrinaire. People belonging to this school claim that they follow the truth and simplicity of nature. In fact, they slavishly imitate artistic ineptitude.”

The principles of the Brotherhood were criticized by many respected painters: the president of the Academy of Arts, Charles Eastlake, and the group of artists "Clique", led by Richard Dadd. As a result, James Collinson even renounced the Brotherhood, and his engagement to Christina Rossetti was broken off. His place was subsequently taken by the painter Walter Deverell.

The situation was saved to a certain extent by John Ruskin, an influential art historian and art critic England. Despite the fact that in 1850 he was only thirty-two years old, he was already the author of a widely famous works about art. In several articles published in The Times, Ruskin gave the works of the Pre-Raphaelites a flattering assessment, emphasizing that he did not personally know anyone from the Brotherhood. He proclaimed that their work could "form the basis art school, more magnificent than anything the world had known for the previous 300 years." In addition, Ruskin bought many of Gabriel Rossetti's paintings, which supported him financially, and took Millet under his wing, in whom he immediately saw outstanding talent.

John Ruskin and his influence

D. E. Millais - John Ruskin in portrait, 1853-1854.

The English critic John Ruskin put in order the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites regarding art, formalizing them into a logical system. Among his works, the most famous are “Fiction: Fair and Foul”, “ English art"(The Art of England), "Modern Painters". He is also the author of the article “Pre-Raphaelitism”, published in 1851.

“Today’s artists,” wrote Ruskin in Modern Artists, “depict [nature] either too superficially or too embellished; they do not try to penetrate into [its] essence.” As an ideal, Ruskin put forward medieval art, such masters of the Early Renaissance as Perugino, Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini, and encouraged artists to “paint with a pure heart, not focusing on anything, choosing nothing and neglecting nothing.” Similarly, Madox Brown, who influenced the Pre-Raphaelites, wrote of his painting The Last of England (1855): “I have tried to forget all existing artistic movements and to reflect this scene as it should have been.” to look like". Madox Brown specifically painted this picture on the coast in order to achieve the effect of “lighting from all sides” that happens at sea on cloudy days. The Pre-Raphaelite technique of painting involved the elaboration of every detail.

M. Brown - Farewell to England, 1855

Ruskin also proclaimed the “principle of fidelity to Nature”: “Is it not because we love our creations more than His, that we value colored glass rather than bright clouds... And, making fonts and erecting columns in honor of Him... we imagine , that we will be forgiven for our shameful neglect of the hills and streams with which He has endowed our abode - the earth." Thus, art was supposed to contribute to the revival of spirituality in man, moral purity and religiosity, which also became the goal of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Ruskin has a clear definition of the artistic goals of Pre-Raphaelitism:

It is easy to control the brush and paint herbs and plants with sufficient fidelity to the eye; Anyone can achieve this after several years of work. But to depict among the herbs and plants the secrets of creation and combinations with which nature speaks to our understanding, to convey the gentle curve and wavy shadow of the loosened earth, to find in everything that seems the smallest, a manifestation of the eternal divine new creation of beauty and greatness, to show this to the unthinking and unseeing - such is artist's appointment.

Ruskin's ideas deeply touched the Pre-Raphaelites, especially William Holman Hunt, who infected Millais and Rossetti with his enthusiasm. In 1847, Hunt wrote of Ruskin's Modern Artists: "I felt, like no other reader, that the book was written especially for me." In defining his approach to his work, Hunt also noted that it was important for him to start from the subject, “not just because there is a charm to the completeness of the subject, but in order to understand the principles of design that exist in Nature.”

Decay

After Pre-Raphaelitism received the support of Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites were recognized and loved, they were given the right of “citizenship” in art, they came into fashion and received a more favorable reception at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and enjoyed success at the World Exhibition of 1855 in Paris.

Arthur Hughes - April Love, 1855-1856.

In addition to the already mentioned Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes (best known for the painting “April Love”, 1855-1856), Henry Wallis, Robert Braithwaite Martineau, William Windus also became interested in the Pre-Raphaelite style ) and others.

D.E. Millet - Huguenot, 1852

However, the Brotherhood disintegrates. Apart from a youthful revolutionary romantic spirit and a fascination with the Middle Ages, little united these people, and of the early Pre-Raphaelites only Holman Hunt remained faithful to the doctrine of the Brotherhood. When Millet became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853, Rossetti declared this event the end of the Brotherhood. “The round table is now dissolved,” concludes Rossetti. Gradually the remaining members also leave. Holman Hunt, for example, went to the Middle East, Rossetti himself, instead of landscapes or religious themes, became interested in literature and created many works on Shakespeare and Dante.

Attempts to revive the Brotherhood as the Hogarth Club, which existed from 1858 to 1861, failed.

Further development of Pre-Raphaelitism

In 1856, Rossetti met with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Burne-Jones was delighted with Rossetti's painting The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice, and subsequently he and Morris asked to become his students. Burne-Jones spent whole days in Rossetti's studio, and Morris joined on weekends.

D. G. Rossetti - First anniversary of the death of Beatrice, 1853

This is how it begins new stage in the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the main idea of ​​which was aestheticism, stylization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius.] All these features are inherent in the work of Rossetti, who was initially the leader of the movement. As artist Val Princep later wrote, Rossetti “was the planet around which we revolved. We even copied his manner of speaking.” However, Rossetti's health (including mental health) is deteriorating, and Edward Burne-Jones, whose works are made in the style of the early Pre-Raphaelites, gradually takes over the leadership. He became extremely popular and had a great influence on such painters as William Waterhouse, Byam Shaw, Cadogan Cooper, and his influence is also noticeable in the works of Aubrey Beardsley and other illustrators of the 1890s. In 1889, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he received the Order of the Legion of Honor for the painting “King Cofetua and the Beggar Woman.”

Edward Burne-Jones - King Cophetua and the Beggar Woman, 1884

Among the late Pre-Raphaelites, one can also highlight such painters as Simeon Solomon and Evelyn de Morgan, as well as illustrators Henry Ford and Evelyn Paul.

Henry Ford - Stepmother Turning Brothers into Swans, 1894

Evelyn Paul - The Divine Comedy

"Arts and Crafts"

Pre-Raphaelitism at this time penetrated into all aspects of life: furniture, decorative arts, architecture, interior decoration, book design, illustrations.

William Morris is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the decorative arts of the 19th century. He founded the Arts and Crafts Movement, the main idea of ​​which was a return to manual craftsmanship as the ideal of applied art, as well as the elevation of printing, foundry, and engraving to the rank of full-fledged arts. This movement, which was taken up by Walter Crane, Mackintosh, Nelson Dawson, Edwin Lutyens, Wright and others, subsequently manifested itself in English and American architecture, interior design, and landscape design.

Poetry

Most of the Pre-Raphaelites were engaged in poetry, but, according to many critics, it has value precisely late period development of Pre-Raphaelitism. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his sister Christina Rossetti, George Meredith, William Morris and Algernon Swinburne left a significant mark on English literature, but the greatest contribution was made by Rossetti, captivated by the poems of the Italian Renaissance and especially the works of Dante. Rossetti's main lyrical achievement is considered to be the cycle of sonnets “The House of Life”. Christina Rossetti was also a famous poet. Rossetti's beloved Elizabeth Siddal also studied poetry, whose works remained unpublished during her lifetime. William Morris was not only a recognized master of stained glass, but also led an active literary activity, including writing many poems. His first collection, The Defense of Guinevere and Other Poems, was published in 1858, when the author was 24 years old.

Under the influence of Pre-Raphaelite poetry, British decadence developed in the 1880s: Ernst Dawson, Lionel Johnson, Michael Field, Oscar Wilde. A romantic longing for the Middle Ages was reflected in Yeats's early work.

William Yeats - He Who Dreamed of a Fairyland (1893)

He lingered at the market in Dromacher,
I considered myself family in a foreign country,
Dreamed of loving while the earth was behind him
She didn’t close the stone doors;
But someone is a pile of fish not far away,
Like silver, scattered on the counter,
And those, raising their cold heads,
They sang about an alien island,
Where are the people above the embroidered wave
Under the woven canopy of motionless crowns
Love tames the rush of time.
And he lost his happiness and peace.

He walked for a long time through the sands in Lissadell
And in my dreams I saw how it would heal,
Having gained wealth and honor,
Until the bones decay in the grave;
But from a random puddle a worm
I sang to him with a swampy gray throat,
That somewhere far away in the sweet freedom
Everyone dances from the ringing joy
Under the gold and silver of heaven;
When suddenly there is silence,
The sun and moon shine in the fruits.

He realized that he was dreaming about something useless.

He thought at the well in Scanavina,
What is the rage of the heart at the mocking light
Will become a rumor around the area for many years,
When the flesh drowns in the earthly abyss;
But then the weed sang to him that
What will become of his chosen people?
Above the old wave, under the firmament,
Where gold is torn apart by silver
And darkness envelops the world victoriously;
Sang to him about what night
It can help lovers forever.
And his anger dissipated without a trace.

He slept under a smoky bluff at Lugnagall;
It would seem that now, in the vale of sleep,
When the earth took its toll,
He could forget about his homeless lot.
But will the worms stop howling?
Weaving rings around his bones,
That God lays his fingers on the sky,
To surround you with a gentle radiance
Dancers above a thoughtless wave?
What's the point of dreams while the Lord is in the heat?
Didn't you burn happy love?
He did not find peace even in the grave.

The famous poet Algernon Swinburne, famous for his bold experiments in versification, was also a playwright and literary critic. Swinburne dedicated his first drama, The Queen Mother and Rosamond, written in 1860, to Rossetti, with whom he had friendly relations. However, although Swinburne declared his commitment to the principles of Pre-Raphaelism, he certainly goes beyond this direction.

Publishing activities

In 1890, William Morris founded the Kelmscott Press, where he published several books with Burne-Jones. This period is called the culmination of the life of William Morris. Drawing on the traditions of medieval scribes, Morris, like the English graphic artist, William Blake, tried to find a unified style for the design of the book page, its title page and binding. Morris's best edition was The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer; the fields are decorated with climbing plants, the text is enlivened by miniature headpieces and ornamented capital letters. As Duncan Robinson wrote,

To the modern reader, accustomed to the simple and functional typefaces of the 20th century, Kelmscott Press editions seem like luxurious creations of the Victorian era. Rich ornamentation, patterns in the form of leaves, illustrations on wood - all this became the most important examples of decorative art of the 19th century; all made by the hands of a man who has contributed more to this field than anyone else.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Ballads and epic poems (Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Ballads and narrative poems). - L.: Kelmscott Press, 1893. Edition by William Morris

Morris designed all 66 books published by the publisher, and Burne-Jones did most of the illustrations. The publishing house lasted until 1898 and had a strong influence on many illustrators of the late 19th century, in particular Aubrey Beardsley.

Aesthetic movement

At the end of the 50s, when the paths of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites diverged, there was a need for new aesthetic ideas and new theorists to shape these ideas. The art historian and literary critic Walter Horatio Pater became such a theorist. Walter Pater believed that the main thing in art is the spontaneity of individual perception, therefore art should cultivate every moment of experiencing life: “Art gives us nothing but awareness of the highest value of each passing moment and the preservation of all of them.” To a large extent, through Pater, the ideas of “art for art’s sake,” drawn from Theophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, are transformed into the concept of aestheticism (English Aesthetic movement), which becomes widespread among English artists and poets: Whistler, Swinburne, Rosseti, Wilde. Oscar Wilde also had a strong influence on the development of the aesthetic movement (including the later work of Rossetti), being personally acquainted with both Holman Hunt and Burne-Jones. He, like many of his peers, read books by Pater and Ruskin, and Wilde’s aestheticism largely grew out of Pre-Raphaelitism, which carried a charge of sharp criticism modern society from the standpoint of beauty. Oscar Wilde wrote that “aesthetics is above criticism,” which is what art believes supreme reality, and life is a kind of fiction: “I write because writing is the highest artistic pleasure for me. If my work is liked by a select few, I'm happy about it. If not, I’m not upset.” The Pre-Raphaelites were also keen on Keats's poetry and fully accepted his aesthetic formula that “beauty is the only truth.”

Subjects

W. H. Hunt - Prudence Awakened, 1853

At first, the Pre-Raphaelites preferred gospel subjects, and avoided them in painting ecclesiastical character and interpreted the Gospel symbolically, attaching special importance not to the historical fidelity of the depicted Gospel episodes, but to their internal philosophical meaning. So, for example, in Hunt’s “Light of the World,” the mysterious divine light of faith is depicted in the form of the Savior with a bright lamp in his hands, striving to penetrate closed human hearts, like Christ knocking on the door of a human home.

W. H. Hunt - Light of the World, 1854

The Pre-Raphaelites drew attention to the theme of social inequality in the Victorian era, emigration (the works of Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes), the degraded position of women (Rossetti), Holman Hunt even touched on the theme of prostitution in his painting “The Awakening Conscience” (eng. The Awakening Conscience, 1853 .). In the picture we see a fallen woman who suddenly realized that she was sinning, and, forgetting about her lover, frees herself from his embrace, as if having heard some call through open window. The man does not understand her spiritual impulses and continues to play the piano. Here the Pre-Raphaelites were not pioneers; they were anticipated by Richard Redgrave with his famous painting The Governess (1844).

R. Redgrave - Governess, 1844

And later, in the 40s, Redgrave created many similar works dedicated to the exploitation of women.

D. G. Rossetti - Proserpina, 1874

The Pre-Raphaelites also dealt with historical topics, achieving the greatest accuracy in depicting factual details; turned to works of classical poetry and literature, to the works of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, John Keats. They idealized the Middle Ages and loved medieval romance and mysticism.

Women's images

The Pre-Raphaelites created a new type of female beauty in fine art - detached, calm, mysterious, which would later be developed by Art Nouveau artists. The woman in the Pre-Raphaelite paintings is a medieval image of ideal beauty and femininity; she is admired and worshiped. This is especially noticeable in Rossetti, who admired beauty and mystery, as well as in Arthur Hughes, Millais, and Burne-Jones. Mystical, destructive beauty, la femme fatale, later found expression in William Waterhouse. In this regard, the painting “The Lady of Shalott” (1888), which still remains one of the most popular exhibits at the Tate Gallery, can be called iconic. It is based on a poem by Alfred Tennyson. Many painters (Holman Hunt, Rossetti) illustrated Tennyson’s works, in particular “The Lady of Shalott”. The story tells of a girl who must remain in a tower, isolated from the outside world, and at the very moment she decides to escape, she signs her own death warrant.

W. Waterhouse - Lady of Shalott, 1888

Image tragic love was attractive to the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers: in late XIX—at the beginning of the 20th century, more than fifty paintings were created on the theme of “The Lady of Shalott,” and the title of the poem became a phraseological unit. The Pre-Raphaelites were particularly attracted to themes such as spiritual purity and tragic love, unrequited love, the unattainable girl, a woman dying for love, marked by shame or damnation, and a dead woman of extraordinary beauty.

W. Waterhouse - Ophelia, 1894

The Victorian concept of femininity was redefined. For example, in “Ophelia” by Arthur Hughes or a series of paintings “Past and Present” (English Past and Present, 1837-1860) by Augustus Egg, a woman is shown as a person capable of experiencing sexual desire and passion, often leading to an untimely death. Augustus Egg created a series of works that show how the family hearth is destroyed after the mother's adultery was discovered. In the first picture, a woman lies on the floor, her face buried in the carpet, in a pose of complete despair, and the bracelets on her hands resemble handcuffs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti uses the figure of Proserpina from ancient Greek and Roman mythology: a young woman stolen by Pluto into the underworld and desperate to return to earth. She eats only a few pomegranate seeds, but a small piece of food is enough for a person to remain forever in the underworld. Proserpina Rossetti is not just beautiful woman with a thoughtful look. She is very feminine and sensual, and the pomegranate in her hands is a symbol of passion and temptation to which she succumbed.

W. Waterhouse - “I am haunted by shadows,” said the Lady of Shalott, 1911

One of the main themes in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites is a seduced woman, destroyed by unrequited love, betrayed by her lovers, a victim of tragic love. In most paintings, there is a man, either explicitly or implicitly, who is responsible for the woman's downfall. As an example, we can cite Hunt’s “Woke Shyness” or Millet’s painting “Mariana”.

D.E. Millet - Mariana, 1851

A similar theme can be seen in poetry: in “The Defense of Guenevere” by William Morris, in Christina Rossetti’s poem “Light Love” (English: Light Love, 1856), in Rossetti’s poem “Jenny” (1870), which shows a fallen woman, a prostitute, who is completely untroubled by her situation and even enjoys sexual freedom.

Scenery

W. H. Hunt - English Shores, 1852

Holman Hunt, Millet, Madox Brown designed the landscape. The painters William Dyce, Thomas Seddon, and John Brett also enjoyed some fame. Landscape painters of this school are especially famous for their depiction of clouds, which they inherited from their famous predecessor, William Turner. They tried to depict the landscape with maximum authenticity. Hunt expressed his thoughts this way: “I want to paint a landscape... depicting every detail that I can see.” And about Millet’s painting “ Autumn leaves“Ruskin said: “This is the first time that twilight has been depicted so perfectly.”

D.E. Millet - Autumn Leaves, 1856

The painters made meticulous sketches of tones from nature, reproducing them as brightly and clearly as possible. This microscopic work required enormous patience and labor; in their letters or diaries, the Pre-Raphaelites complained about the need to stand for hours in the hot sun, rain, and wind in order to paint, sometimes, a very small section of the picture. For these reasons, the Pre-Raphaelite landscape did not become widespread, and then it was replaced by impressionism.

Lifestyle

Pre-Raphaelitism is a cultural style that penetrated into the lives of its creators and, to some extent, determined this life. The Pre-Raphaelites lived in the environment they created and made such an environment extremely fashionable. As Andrea Rose notes in her book, at the end of the 19th century, “fidelity to nature gives way to fidelity to image. The image becomes recognizable and therefore quite ready for the market.”

William Morris - Queen Ginevra, 1858

American writer Henry James, in a letter dated March 1969, told his sister Alice about his visit to the Morrises.

“Yesterday, my dear sister,” writes James, “was a kind of apotheosis for me, for I spent the greater part of it at the house of Mr. W. Morris, the poet. Morris lives in the same house where he opened his shop, in Bloomsbury... You see, poetry is a secondary occupation for Morris. First of all, he is a manufacturer of stained glass, faience tiles, medieval tapestries and church embroidery - in general, everything Pre-Raphaelite, antique, unusual and, I must add, incomparable. Of course, all this is done on a modest scale and can be done at home. The things he makes are extraordinarily elegant, precious and expensive (they surpass the price of the greatest luxury items), and because his factory cannot be of too much importance. But everything he has created is amazing and excellent... he also has the help of his wife and little daughters.”

Henry James goes on to describe William Morris's wife, Jane Morris (nee Jane Burden), who later became Rossetti's lover and model and can often be seen in the artist's paintings:

“Oh, my dear, what a woman this is! She is beautiful in everything. Imagine a tall, thin woman, long dress made of fabric the color of muted purple, made of natural material down to the last lace, with a shock of curly black hair falling in large waves along the temples, a small and pale face, large dark eyes, deep and quite Swinburne-like, with thick black arched eyebrows... High open neck in pearls, and in the end - perfection itself. On the wall hung an almost life-size portrait of her by Rossetti, so strange and unreal that if you had seen it, you would have taken it for a painful vision, but of extraordinary similarity and fidelity to the features. After dinner... Morris read us one of his unpublished poems... and his wife, suffering from toothache, rested on the sofa, with a scarf over her face. It seemed to me that there was something fantastic and remote from our real life in this scene: Morris, reading in a smooth antique meter a legend of miracles and horrors (this was the story of Bellerophon), around us is the picturesque second-hand furniture of the apartment (each item is an example of something), and, in the corner, this gloomy woman, silent and medieval with my medieval toothache.”

The Pre-Raphaelites were surrounded by women of all kinds social status, lovers, models. One journalist writes about them this way: “... women without crinolines, with flowing hair... unusual, like a fever dream in which magnificent and fantastic images slowly move.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived in a refined and bohemian atmosphere, and his eccentric image itself became part of the Pre-Raphaelite legend: Rossetti lived with the most different people, including poet Algernon Swinburne, writer George Meredith. Models succeeded one another, some of them became Rossetti's mistresses, the vulgar and stingy Fanny Cornforth was especially famous. Rossetti's house was full of antiques, antique furniture, Chinese porcelain and other trinkets, which he bought from junk shops. In the garden there were owls, wombats, kangaroos, parrots, peacocks, and at one time there even lived a bull whose eyes reminded Rossetti of the eyes of his beloved Jane Morris.

The meaning of Pre-Raphaelitism

Pre-Raphaelitism as an artistic movement is widely known and popular in Great Britain. It is also called the first British movement to achieve world fame, however, among researchers the significance is assessed differently: from a revolution in art to pure innovation in painting technique. There is an opinion that the movement began with an attempt to update painting, and subsequently had a great influence on the development of literature and the entire English culture as a whole. According to the Literary Encyclopedia, due to its refined aristocracy, retrospectivity and contemplation, their work had little impact on the broad masses.

Despite the apparent focus on the past, the Pre-Raphaelites contributed to the establishment of the Art Nouveau style in the fine arts; moreover, they are considered the predecessors of the Symbolists, sometimes even identifying both. For example, that the exhibition "Symbolism in Europe", which moved from November 1975 to July 1976 from Rotterdam through Brussels and Baden-Baden to Paris, took 1848 as the starting date - the year of the founding of the Brotherhood. Pre-Raphaelite poetry left its mark on the French symbolists Verlaine and Mallarmé, and painting on artists such as Aubrey Beardsley, Waterhouse, and lesser known ones such as Edward Hughes or Calderon. Some even point to the influence of Pre-Raphaelite painting on English hippies, and Burne-Jones on the young Tolkien. Interestingly, in his youth, Tolkien, who together with his friends organized a semi-secret society called the Tea Club, compared them to the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

Some Pre-Raphaelitist works

D.E. Millais - Cherry Ripe, 1879

D.E. Millet - Lorenzo and Isabella, 1849

D.E. Millais - The North-West Passage, 1874

D.E. Millet - Black Brunswick Hussar, 1860

D. G. Rossetti - Beata Beatrix, 1864-1870

D. G. Rossetti - Annunciation, 1850

W. Waterhouse - Gilias and Nymphs, 1896

W.H. Hunt - Finding the Savior in the Temple, 1860

W.H. Hunt - Hired Shepherd, 1851

Pre-Raphaelite artists (from the Latin prae - forward, and the name "Raphael"), are representatives of the movement in English poetry and painting of the mid-19th century, formed to combat established academic traditions, conventions and imitation classic designs. The main representatives of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - William Holman Hunt (1827 -1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and John Everett Millais (1829-1896) - considered the painting of the early Renaissance artists who worked before Raphael worthy of admiration. The Pre-Raphaelites considered Perugino, Fra Angelico and Giovanni Bellini worthy of emulation.

Pre-Raphaelite artists against academicism

In the middle of the 19th century, the academic school in English painting was leading. In a developed industrial society high level execution technique was perceived as a guarantee of quality. Therefore, the works of the academy students were quite successful and in demand by English society. But the stability of English painting has already developed into ossification, getting bogged down in conventions and repetitions. And the summer exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts became more and more predictable every year. The Royal Academy of Arts preserved the traditions of academicism and treated innovations with great caution and skepticism. Pre-Raphaelite artists did not want to depict nature and people as abstractly beautiful, they wanted to depict them truthfully and simply, believing that the only way to prevent the degradation of English painting was a return to the simplicity and sincerity of the art of the early Renaissance.

What did the Pre-Raphaelites especially dislike?

• erroneous standards of academic education
• first president of the Academy of Arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
• Raphael's painting "Transfiguration"
• creativity of P.P. Rubens

In Raphael's painting "The Transfiguration" the Pre-Raphaelites saw a disregard for simplicity and truth. According to W. H. Hunt, the attire of the apostles was too pompous, and the image of the Savior was devoid of spirituality.

D. G. Rosseti, hating the work of Rubens with all his soul, managed to write “Spit here” on the pages of a work on the history of art, opposite each mention and the last one.

Rafael Santi. Transfiguration

P.P. Rubens. Drunk Hercules

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Self-portrait

Creative and artistic techniques of the Pre-Raphaelites

• Bright, fresh colors

To achieve brighter and fresher tones, Pre-Raphaelite artists used new painting techniques. They painted in oils on damp white ground or on a layer of whitewash. In addition to the brightness of the colors, the chosen technique made it possible to make the artists’ works more durable - the works of the Pre-Raphaelites have been preserved in their original form to this day.

• Pure paints
• True representation of nature

Having abandoned “cabinet painting”, young artists began to paint in nature and attached great importance to fine detailing.

“I want to paint a landscape, depicting every detail I can see” (W. Hunt)

• Focus on the art of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance
• Using relatives, friends and people from the street as models, rather than professional models.

An illiterate girl, Fanny Cornforth, posed for Dante Rossetti’s famous painting “Lady Lilith.” The painting “The Youth of the Virgin Mary” depicts the mother and sister of the artist Dante Rossetti. For the painting “Ophelia” the artist D.E. Millais chose the moment in Shakespeare's tragedy when Ophelia threw herself into the river, slowly sank into the water and sang snatches of songs. First, the artist painted a picturesque river corner, and he painted the figure of a girl already in the winter months. Elizabeth Siddal, wearing a luxurious antique dress, spent many hours in a bath of warm water. At one point the lamps heating the water went out, but the girl did not complain and became seriously ill. Subsequently, Elizabeth Siddal's father sent the artist an invoice to pay for his daughter's treatment.

• Symbolism

Pre-Raphaelite paintings are characterized by many details endowed with a certain meaning or symbol. For example, in the painting by D.E. Millet's "Ophelia" depicts many flowers. Daisies symbolize pain, chastity and betrayed love, ivy is a sign of immortality and eternal rebirth, willow is a symbol of rejected love, poppies are a traditional symbol of death.

Dante Rossetti. Lady Lilith

D.G. Rossetti. The Youth of the Virgin Mary

D.E. Millet. Ophelia

Pre-Raphaelite artists. Main subjects and famous paintings.

If we look at the work of the Pre-Raphaelites superficially, then the first thing that appears to us when they are mentioned are the tragic figures of red-haired women embodying the images of famous literary heroines. But the true source of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was the rebellion against aesthetic conventions and the desire to truthfully and accurately depict reality.

The main themes of the work of the Pre-Raphaelites:

• medievalism (history of the Middle Ages), King Arthur
• cult of female beauty
• Shakespeare's work
• works of Dante Alighieri
• Jesus Christ
• social problems

Medievalism, King Arthur in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites

The works of the Pre-Raphaelites are filled with spiritual symbolism, referring us to the ideals of chivalry, Christian virtues and exploits. Against the backdrop of the moral decline that reigned in England in the mid-19th century, these paintings looked idyllic. But it was precisely the knightly subjects and images, according to the artists of the Brotherhood, that were supposed to overcome the decline and solve the social problems of England.

The stories about King Arthur were especially popular. The Pre-Raphaelites found abundant materials about King Arthur in the poetry of A. Tennyson. The favorite characters in Pre-Raphaelite paintings were Galahad and Elaine, Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur, Merlin and the Maiden of the Lake.

D.G. Rossetti. Virgin of the Holy Grail. 1874

E. Coley Burne-Jones. Enchanted Merlin. 1877

D. W. Waterhouse. Lady of Shalott, 1888

The works of Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri in the paintings of Pre-Raphaelite artists

To understand the meaning of some Pre-Raphaelite paintings, it is necessary to refer to their literary basis. Turning to the text will allow you to more fully reveal the features and patterns of the embodiment of a particular image.

The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to raise painting to the level of literature and poetry and bring art intellectual beginning.

Pre-Raphaelite artists often turned to literary and historical subjects in their work. And the work of Shakespeare and Dante, in whose literary works the drama of human relationships is so vividly shown, occupies a special place in their painting. The creators tried to depict the scene as accurately as possible from a historical point of view. To create the most natural composition around the main scene, they carefully painted the background, filling it with interior or landscape details. Filling the picture with the characters of the plot, they carefully studied examples of costumes and ornaments in historical reference books. But, despite such pedantry in depicting external details, human relationships always remained the center of the composition.

D. W. Waterhouse. Miranda and Storm

F.M. Brown. Romeo and Juliet. The famous balcony scene

D.G. Rossetti. Visions of Dante

D.G. Rossetti. Dante's Love

D.G. Rosstetti. Blessed Beatrice. 1864-1870

Religious and social subjects in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought to revive the traditions of religious painting without resorting to the conventional images of Catholic altar paintings. However, young artists did not seek to emphasize theological truths in their canvases. They approached the Bible as a source of human drama. These works, naturally, were not intended for the decoration of churches and had a literary and poetic rather than a religious meaning.

Over time, the work of young reformers began to be reproached for too free interpretations of religious subjects. Millet's painting "Christ in the Parental House" depicts the ascetic environment in the carpenter's house. In the background are grazing sheep. The Savior wounded his palm with a nail, and the Mother of God consoles him. The canvas is filled with many meanings: the sheep are an innocent victim, the bleeding hand is a sign of the future crucifixion, the cup of water carried by John the Baptist is a symbol of the Baptism of the Lord. For what Holy Family depicted in Milles's canvas “Christ in the Parental House” in the image of ordinary people, critics called this painting “The Carpenter's Workshop.” Queen Victoria wanted to personally verify that there was no blasphemy in the painting and asked that the painting be delivered to her. The artist decided to rename the painting just in case.

By depicting the life of ordinary people on their canvases, the Pre-Raphaelites identified the moral and ethical problems of modern society. Often social subjects in Pre-Raphaelite paintings take the form of religious parables.

D.W. Waterhouse. Fate. 1900

The cult of female beauty on the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

On the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites, female images received a new development. Femininity was seen as an indivisible combination of physicality, attractiveness, symbolism and spirituality at the same time. The peculiarity of the depiction of women was the simultaneous combination of realism and fantasy of the image. On the canvases of young artists, the literary images of Shakespeare, Keats, Chatterton and others acquired physicality without losing their mystery. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to make accessible to the eye the image of a woman described in romantic literature.

D.G. Rossetti. Proserpina

D.W. Waterhouse. Pick your roses quickly. 1909

W. Hunt. Isabella and the Pot of Basil 1868

Pre-Raphaelites and John Ruskin

The pioneer and supporter of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was the prominent and significant art theorist John Ruskin. At that moment, when an avalanche of criticism fell on young artists, he supported the artists both morally - by writing an article in defense of a new direction in painting, and financially - by purchasing several paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites.

Everyone took John Ruskin's opinion into account, so very soon the paintings of talented young people became popular. What was so special that the venerable art theorist found in these paintings? On the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites, John Ruskin saw a living and creative embodiment of those ideas about which he wrote so much in his works:

• insight into nature
• attention to detail
• rejection of imposed conventions and canons
• idealization of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance

The famous critic wrote several articles for The Times, where he highly praised the artists’ work. Ruskin published a brochure about these masters, which served as a turning point in their fate. At the 1852 academic exhibition, Hunt's The Hired Shepherd and Millais's Ophelia were received positively.

Pre-Raphaelites. Arts and Crafts Movement. Art Nouveau style

Each Pre-Raphaelite artist was looking for his own creative path and love for the Middle Ages was no longer enough to keep the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood together. The final discord occurred in 1853, when Millais became a member of the Royal Academy, which the Pre-Raphaelites so vehemently opposed.

In 1856, Rossetti met with William Morris, the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, who later influenced the formation of. W. Morris, together with Edward Burne-Jones, became Rossetti's students. From this moment on, a new stage of the “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood” begins; the main idea now becomes the aestheticization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius.

Rossetti's mental and physical health gradually deteriorated and Edward Burne-Jones now became the leader of the movement. Creating works in the spirit of the early Pre-Raphaelites, he became extremely popular.

William Morris becomes a central figure in the decorative arts of the 19th century, and the Art Nouveau style, one of the sources of which was Pre-Raphaelitism, penetrates not only the decorative arts, but also furniture, interior decoration, architecture, and book design.

Pre-Raphaelite artists. Main representatives

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

He was born into a petty-bourgeois family of intellectuals on May 12, 1828. The year 1848 was significant for the artist, since at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts he met William Holman Hunt. Joint creativity led to the creation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
He married the muse and popular Pre-Raphaelite model Elizabeth Siddal. In the period 1854-1862 he was a teacher in the first municipal educational institution where the lower classes were educated. In 1881, the artist's health began to deteriorate. The resort of Birchington-on-Sea became the artist's final refuge. Death opened its arms to him on April 9, 1882.

Style features

Characteristic features of Gabriel Rossetti's style were multidimensional perspective and detailed elaboration of each part of the picture. In the author's works, the spirituality and greatness of man comes to the fore.

Main paintings

"The Youth of the Virgin Mary";
"Annunciation";
"Inscriptions on the sand";
Sir Galahad at the Ruined Chapel;
"Dante's Love"
"Blessed Beatrice";
"Monna Vanna";
"Pia de Tolomei";
"Viammetta's Vision"
"Pandora";
"Proserpina".

D.G. Rossetti. Venus Verticordia

D.G. Rosstetti. Beatrice blessed

D.G. Rossetti. King Arthur's Tomb

William Holman Hunt

W.H. Hunt Self-Portrait, 1867

One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was distinguished from other artists in the community by his religiosity. From birth he had the name William Hobman Hunt, but later independently replaced it with a pseudonym. The painting “Light of the World” brought fame to the artist.

He wrote an autobiographical work, Pre-Raphaelitism, the purpose of which was to leave accurate data about the founding of the Brotherhood. He married Fanny Waugh, after whose death he remarried her sister Edith Alice. This union brought him disapproval from society.

Style features

The surrounding world is surrounded by picturesque nature, all the details of which are aimed at enhancing the internal state of the image. A feature of Holman Hunt's works are soft transitions of halftones and rich combinations of colors.

Main paintings

• "Light of the World";
• "The Lady of Shalott"
• "Claudio and Isabella";
• The Festival of St. Swithin;
• "The Descent of the Holy Fire";
• "Scapegoat";
• "The shadow of death";
• "Knock."

W. H. Hunt. Scapegoat. 1856

W. H. Hunt. Knock

W.H. Hunt. The shadow of death

John Everett Millais

D.E. Millet. Self-portrait

At the age of eleven he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (1840). Considered to be the youngest student in the history of the institution. By the age of fifteen he showed special skills in working with a brush. His work in the academic style, “Pizarro Captures the Peruvian Incas,” was honored to be exhibited at the summer academic exhibition of 1846.

For his work “The Attack of the Tribe of Benjamin on the Daughters of Siloam” he was awarded a gold medal in 1847. After meeting Dante, Gabriel Rossetti and Hlman Hunt joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The work that made him famous was the painting “Ophelia”, the model for which was the Pre-Raphaelite muse and future wife of D.G. Rossetti Elizabeth Siddal.

In 1855, John Everett Millais married John Ruskin's ex-wife Effie, immediately after her high-profile divorce from the latter. From that time on, he completely moved away from the “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood” and created popular paintings in the academic style. In 1896, he was elected president of the Royal Academy of Arts, the struggle against the basic principles of which was one of the unifying principles for the Pre-Raphaelite artists.

Style features

The pronounced features of the style are the inheritance of Raphael's technique. Perspective is based on the play of light and shadow. The artist used a muted palette, highlighting the accents with bright details and creating an atmosphere of action.

Main paintings

• “Pizarro captures the Peruvian Incas”;
• “The attack of the tribe of Benjamin on the daughters of Siloam”;
• "Ophelia";
• Cherry Ripe;
• "The Death of Romeo and Juliet."

D.E. Millet. Ophelia

D. E. Millet. Christ in his parents' house

D.E. Millet. Pizarro captures the Peruvian Incas

Madox Brown

A prominent representative of Pre-Raphaelitism, but was not a member of the brotherhood. He supported the ideas of Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris. Together with the latter he worked on the design of stained glass windows.

Studied at the Academy of Arts (Bruges). Later he moved to Ghent, then to Antwerp. The painting “The Execution of Mary of Scotland,” painted in 1840, brought fame. He relied on the romantic direction of artists of the Early Renaissance. Most of the stories were devoted to religious and spiritual themes.

Style features

In his works, the artist sought to achieve a clear description of the plot and convey the truth of life. Reproduction of the drama of events is achieved by contrasts of colors and expressiveness of poses.

Main paintings

• "The Execution of Mary of Scots";
• “Christ washing the feet of the Apostle Peter”;
• "Farewell to England";
• "The Death of Sir Tristram."

F. M. Brown. Romeo and Juliet. The famous balcony scene

F.M. Brown. Farewell to England

F.M. Brown. Work

Edward Burne-Jones

Illustrator and painter, close in the spirit of the plot and presentation to the Pre-Raphaelites. Known for his work on stained glass. He received his primary education at King Edward's School.

Since 1848, he entered additional training at evening courses government school of design. He met William Maurice at Oxford University (1853). Inspired by the ideas of the Brotherhood, he abandoned the theological direction and began an in-depth study of drawing techniques. He dedicated his works to the romantic legends of England.

Style features

The artist preferred the emphasis on the naked male body. The presentation of perspective through the color scheme creates a feeling of flatness. The contrasting play of chiaroscuro is completely absent. The emphasis is on lines, the favorite colors are the gold and orange spectrum.

Main paintings

• "Annunciation";
• "Enchanted Merlin";
• "Golden Staircase";
• "Book of Flowers";
• "Love among the ruins."

E. Burne-Jones. Love among the ruins.

E. Coley Burne-Jones. King Cofetua and the beggar woman. 1884

Burne-Jones. Enchanted Merlin

William Morris

W. Morris. self-portrait

English novelist, artist, poet and socialist. Considered the largest representative of the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites, the recognized unofficial leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
A wealthy family was able to give the artist a good education. Out of passion for the Middle Ages and the Tractarian movement, he became friends with Edward Burne-Jones.
Main storylines W. Morris's paintings included the legend of King Arthur. The collection “The Defense of Guinevere and Other Poems”, published in 1858, was dedicated to this idea.
Since 1859 he lived in an official marriage with Jane Burden. She became his model for many paintings.

R. Fenton. Interior of Tintern Abbey, late 1850s

In 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood arose in Great Britain, an association of artists created by William Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Millais. Young painters were against the academic education system and the conservative tastes of Victorian society.

The Pre-Raphaelites were inspired by the painting of the Italian Proto-Renaissance and the 15th century, hence the very name “Pre-Raphaelites” - literally “before Raphael” ( Italian artist High Renaissance Rafael Santi).

The invention of the wet colloid process, which replaced calotype, by Frederick Scott Archer coincided with the emergence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Members of the fraternity enthusiastically welcomed the emergence of a new method. At a time when most artists considered the amazing precision of photographic images to be a disadvantage, the Pre-Raphaelites, who themselves strived for meticulous depiction of detail in painting, admired precisely this aspect of photography. Pre-Raphaelite art critic John Ruskin spoke of the first daguerreotypes he bought in Venice as “little treasures”: “It was as if a magician had shrunk the real thing (San Marco or the Canal Grande) so that he could carry it away with him.” to an enchanted land."

The Pre-Raphaelites, like many artists at that time, used photographs as a preparatory stage for creating paintings. Gabriel Rossetti took a series of photographs of Jane Morris, which became material for the artist’s future paintings. Rossetti and William Morris painted and photographed this woman many times, finding in her features of the romantic medieval beauty that they so admired.

A few years after the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the movement “For Highly Artistic Photography” appeared in England. The organizers of this movement were the painters Oscar Gustav Reilander (1813–1875) and Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901), who were closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and shared their ideas. Reilander and Robinson, like the Pre-Raphaelites, drew inspiration from the world of images of medieval English literature, from the works of English poets William Shakespeare and John Milton. In 1858, Robinson created one of his best photographs, “The Lady of Shalott,” close in composition to the Pre-Raphaelite painting “Ophelia” by D. Millais. Being an adherent of photomontage, Robinson printed a photograph from two negatives: on one negative the author took a model in a canoe, on the other he captured the landscape.

Participants in the movement “For Highly Artistic Photography” interpreted the photograph as a painting, in full accordance with the norms of academic painting. In his book Pictorial Effect in Photography (1869), Robinson referred to the rules of composition, harmony and balance necessary to achieve the “pictorial effect”: “The artist who wishes to produce pictures with a camera is subject to the same laws as the artist. using paints and pencils."

Oscar Gustav Reilander was born in Sweden, studied painting in Italy and moved to England in 1841. Reilander became interested in photography in the 1850s. He became famous for his allegorical composition “Two Ways of Life,” exhibited in 1857 at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester. The photograph was taken using the photomontage technique, and Reilander needed 30 (!) negatives to make it. But lack of public recognition led him to abandon his labor-intensive technique and move on to portraiture. In contrast to his allegorical compositions, Reilander's portraits are more advanced in their execution technique. The portrait of Miss Mander is one of Reilander's finest.

The painter Roger Fenton (1819–1869) had the highest opinion of photography, and even founded a photographic society in 1853. His early series of photographs of Russia, portraits of the royal family and reports from the Crimean War brought him international recognition. Fenton’s approach to the landscape is associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and their vision: a highly raised horizon line, the absence of such romantic techniques as haze, fog, etc. Fenton, like the Pre-Raphaelites, sought to emphasize his technical skill and glorified the tangible reality of the landscape. The master also shared the Pre-Raphaelite interest in women in exotic costumes, which can be seen in the Nubian Water Bearers or Egyptian Dancing Girls.

Particularly noteworthy are the photographs of children taken by Lewis Carroll (1832–1898). The author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and professor of mathematics at Oxford University, Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was also a gifted amateur photographer. For Carroll, light painting was not just a pastime, but a great passion, to which he devoted a lot of time and to which he dedicated several small essays and even the poem “Hiawatha the Photographer” (1857):

On Hiawatha's shoulder is a box made of rosewood: The device is so collapsible, Made of planks and glass, Cleverly tightened with screws, To fit into the box. Hiawatha climbs into the casket and pushes the hinges apart, transforming the small casket into a cunning figure, as if from the books of Euclid. He places it on a tripod and climbs under the black canopy. Crouching, he waves his hand: - Well! Freeze! I beg you! Quite a strange thing to do.

The writer devoted 25 years to this “strange” occupation, during which he created wonderful children’s portraits, showing himself to be a keen expert on child psychology. Like the Pre-Raphaelites, who, in search of ideal and beauty, retreated further and further into the world of their fantasy, Carroll searched for his fairy-tale Alice in the photographic Through the Looking Glass. Mrs. Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1878) turned to photography in the mid-1860s when her daughter gave her a camera. “I longed to capture all the beauty that passed before me,” Cameron wrote, “and at last my desire was granted.”

In 1874–75, Cameron, at the request of her friend Tennyson, illustrated some of his poems and poems. The composition of the photograph “The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere” is close to the composition of the paintings of D. G. Rossetti, but Cameron does not have the same accuracy in conveying details that is inherent in the Pre-Raphaelites. By softening the optical design, Cameron achieves greater poetry in his works.

The work of the Pre-Raphaelites and photographers was very closely related. Moreover, the influence was not one-sided. Julia Cameron, abandoning precise focusing, created magnificent photographic studies. Rossetti, who highly appreciated her work, changed his style of writing, subsequently striving for greater artistic generalization. Gabriel Rossetti and John Millais used photographs to create their paintings, and photographers in turn turned to themes developed by the Pre-Raphaelites. Photographic portraits created by L. Carroll, D. M. Cameron and O. G. Reilander convey not so much the character as the moods and dreams of their models - which is characteristic of Pre-Raphaelism. The approach to depicting nature was the same: the early landscapes of the Pre-Raphaelites and landscapes of photographers such as Roger Fenton are extremely accurate and detailed.

Thematic table of contents (Reviews and criticism: fine art (painting, sculpture, etc.))

At the Pushkin Museum named after A.S. Pushkin's exhibition of Pre-Raphaelites ends. The last day is September 22, but on Thursday and Saturday the museum is open until 9-10 pm. The line today was about 40 minutes long, probably less on weekdays. There is an audio guide, there are also live guides, there are detailed captions for the paintings - there is a lot of information. The ticket costs 400 rubles. without benefits and 200 rubles. preferential. (At the same time, you can visit the Titian exhibition. It will end a little later, on September 29. Titian has 2 small halls).
In addition to paintings, there are stained glass windows, tapestries, samples of wallpaper made from Pre-Raphaelite drawings, and even one painted sideboard. All this, of course, is not too much - as usual: the White Hall and gallery.
Looking at the paintings at the exhibition, you can get acquainted with the complex personal lives of the members of this artistic community.
I will put Dante Rossetti at the center of the story, as the most brilliant of the Pre-Raphaelites. The illustrations will be only those paintings that were at the exhibition at the Pushkin Museum plus photographs. Unfortunately, not all the paintings I liked could be found on the Internet. In the Pushkin Museum, as you know, filming is strictly prohibited.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in 1828. His father Gabriel Rossetti, a Carbonari who fled Italy in 1821, became professor of Italian at King's College. He married Frances, who was the daughter of the Italian exile Gaetano Polidori and the sister of John Polidori, author of The Vampire and Lord Byron's physician. (John Polidori was a strange man. Sometimes he fell into long stupor, drank opium, was truly in love with Byron It is possible that Rossetti inherited his oddities from his uncle).

The family had four children - two boys and two girls. The boys drew and wrote poetry. The most capable was Dante Gabriel, whose name testifies to the real cult of the great Italian poet who reigned in the house. Rossetti studied at the Academy of Drawing in Bloomsbury.
This is a very prosaic photo of him.

In 1848, at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, Rossetti met William Holman Hunt, Hunt helped Rossetti complete the painting “The Childhood of the Virgin Mary,” which was exhibited in 1849, and he also introduced Rossetti to J. E. Millais. Together they found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The name “Pre-Raphaelites” was supposed to denote a spiritual relationship with the Florentine artists of the early Renaissance, that is, the artists “before Raphael” and Michelangelo: Perugino, Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini. Hunt, Millais and Rossetti stated in the Rostock magazine that they did not want to portray people and nature as abstractly beautiful, and events as far from reality, and, finally, they were tired of the convention of official, “exemplary” mythological, historical and religious works. The Pre-Raphaelites abandoned academic principles of work and believed that everything should be painted from life. They chose friends or relatives as models. They painted some paintings in the open air. The Pre-Raphaelites outlined a composition on a primed canvas, applied a layer of whitewash and removed the oil from it with blotting paper, and then wrote on top of the whitewash with translucent paints. The chosen technique allowed us to achieve bright, fresh tones.
At first, the works of the Pre-Raphaelites were well received, then they were criticized, but John Ruskin, an influential art historian and art critic of England, spoke on the side of the commonwealth.
Their models played a great role in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. They were all women of the people. Artists not only painted pictures from them, not only made them their mistresses, but also got married, educated them, and taught them to draw. It's interesting to see how differently this happened.

Many Pre-Raphaelite paintings depict Elizabeth Siddal.
Elizabeth Siddal was born on July 25, 1829 in large family worker from Sheffield. WITH early childhood she helped her mother and sisters in sewing cheap dresses. From the age of eighteen she worked as a milliner in a hat shop in London's Covent Garden. Here in 1849 Elizabeth was met by Walter Deverell and, through his mother, offered to pose for him.

Walter Deverell. “Twelfth Night”, act II, scene 4. In the center, in the image of the dreamy Duke Orsino, the artist depicted himself; the jester sitting on the right, Festa, gave the features of his friend Rossetti. Cesario Viola in disguise - Lizzie Siddal

Pale and red-haired, Elizabeth personified the type of woman of the Quattrocento (the so-called period of Renaissance art in the 14th century) in the minds of the Pre-Raphaelites. She became a real muse for the members of the fraternity. The most famous painting of Elizabeth is Millais' Ophelia (1852). For an artist who strived to accurately depict all the details, she posed in a bathtub. This happened in winter, and to prevent the girl from freezing, Millet placed lamps under the bathroom that heated the water. According to the story of W. Rossetti, one day the lamps went out, Elizabeth caught a cold and her father demanded that Millet pay for the doctor’s services. Elizabeth was prescribed laudanum (opium tincture with alcohol) - a common medicine for that time. This incident probably undermined the girl’s already fragile health.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti met Elisabeth in 1852 in Millet's studio. He demanded that she leave her job. He was going to teach her everything he knew, including drawing, and when she became a truly educated woman, he would introduce her to his family and marry her. Rossetti moved from his parents to rented rooms in an old house on the banks of the Thames in Chatham Place and settled there with Lizzie. She became Rossetti's regular model. Passion inspired Rossetti to embody scenes from the history of Dante and Beatrice: in the paintings “Paolo and Francesca da Rimini”, “Dante’s Love”, “Dante’s Appearance of Rachel and Leah” the female characters are Elizabeth Siddal.

Annunciation. This painting has been criticized for making Mary look scared.

Dante's love.

"Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah"

Rossetti encouraged Liz literary creativity and graphics classes. Siddal's poems were not successful, but she became famous as an artist. She, the only woman among the artists, participated in the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Russell Place in 1857. Her work was exhibited at the Exhibition of British Art in America in 1858. Ruskin supported her and even paid her a scholarship.
http://preraphs.tripod.com/people/lsiddal.html

But in the relationship between Elizabeth and Dante, not everything was smooth: Rossetti, despite his sublime love to Siddal, could not break ties with other women, including Fanny Cornforth and Annie Miller (Hunt's friend).

I'll tell you a little about them.

Annie Miller was born in 1835 in Chelsea, London. Her father Henry served in the 14th Dragoons and was wounded at Napoleonic Wars. Mother was a cleaner. When she died at the age of 37, her father could not cope with his two small children, Annie and her older sister Harriet, and the Millers were forced to move in with relatives. The family lived very poorly, Annie worked from the age of ten.
Miller, who was about fifteen when she met Hunt, was serving drinks at a bar. Hunt was about to marry Annie, and before his trip to Palestine in 1854, he left instructions for her to attend to her education while he was away. Hunt also left a list of artists, including Millais, for whom she could pose.

William Hunt. “The Finding of the Savior in the Temple,” 1860 (According to one of the Gospels, little Jesus once disappeared, and his parents were knocked off their feet, looking for him. He ended up in the Temple, where he talked with the wise men, and the depth of the child’s statements shocked the elders. He told his parents, that he came to his Father's house).

It was for this picture that Hunt went to the Middle East. The picture was a success, but he lost his bride. In his absence, Annie, against his wishes, also posed for Rossetti, and all of this artist’s models became his mistresses.

Hunt returned from his trip in 1856. Annie's involvement with Rossetti led to a quarrel between him and Hunt. Rossetti's wife Elizabeth Siddal was also jealous. According to rumors, she once even threw his drawings of Miller into the Thames. Despite Hunt proposing to her, Annie had an affair with Thomas Heron Jones, 7th Viscount Ranelagh, which caused Hunt to finally break off the engagement in 1859.
After the broken engagement, Annie turned to Heron Jones for help, who suggested that she sue Hunt for breaking his promise to marry (which was possible under the legal norms of the time), but she soon met the Viscount's cousin, Captain Thomas Thomson, who fell in love with her . Thomson offered to threaten that they would give Hunt's letters to Annie to the newspaper. Hunt's friends assumed that he bought the letters.
Thomas and Annie married in 1863. They had a son and daughter. Subsequently, Hunt once met Annie with the children and wrote that he saw a “busty matron.”
Thomas Thomson died at the age of 87 in 1916. Annie Miller lived another nine years after his death and died at 90, in 1925.

Fanny Cornforth was born in Sussex in 1835, and met Rossetti in 1858, becoming his model and lover in the absence of Elizabeth Siddal. But her main occupation was cooking and cleaning - she was hired as a servant.

Photo from 1863.

She came from a lower social background and was characterized by her lack of education and a thick accent.

"Lady Lilith."
Rossetti here transformed the rustic appearance of his cook. At first he painted Jane Morris, but the customer did not like her face, and the artist rewrote it on Fanny’s face.

Fanny was not only written by Rossetti.
Watercolor "Sidonia von Bork" by Burne Jones (based on the book of the writer of the first half of the 19th century, Wilhelm Meinhold, "Sidonia von Bork. The Monastery Witch"). The sinister essence of the heroine of the picture is emphasized by the special pattern of the dress. By the way, the pattern was first applied with paint and then scratched out with a needle. Here's more about it:
http://blog.i.ua/community/1952/723967/

When Siddal returned in 1860, Rossetti married her; in return, Cornforth married mechanic Timothy Hughes, but they did not live together for long.
After Elizabeth's death, Siddal moved in with Rossetti as a housewife, and their relationship lasted almost until the poet's death. At the same time, Rossetti was in a relationship with Jane Morris, but Jane was married to William Morris, so the affair had to be kept secret.
Over time, Cornforth gained a lot of weight, for which she received the nickname “Dear Elephant” from Rossetti. In turn, she called him “Rhino,” alluding to his increased waist size. While Rossetti was apart, he drew and sent her elephants.
In 1879, she separated from the artist and married John Schott. They ran a hotel. At the end of her life she suffered from senile dementia and in 1905 she was given bail to her husband’s sister. She died in 1906.

Annie, Fanny and more...What was it like for a woman to go through all this? Elizabeth's health was deteriorating. At the beginning of 1860, she became seriously ill and then Rossetti promised to marry her as soon as she recovered. The wedding took place on May 23, 1860. In May 1861, Elizabeth gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. Siddal fell into depression, quarrels with Dante and attacks of insanity began. On February 11, 1862, she died from an overdose of laudanum. It is unknown whether this was an accident or suicide. Rossetti was deeply shocked by the death of his wife. Throughout his subsequent life he suffered from bouts of depression, nightmares and remorse. Rossetti found relief in alcohol and drugs.
Having a hard time experiencing the death of his wife, Rossetti left the house on Chatham Place, where he lived with Elizabeth. He settled in Tudor House (Chelsea). Here, for several years, again turning to the technique of oil painting, he created a monument to Elizabeth - a painting in which he presented her in the image of Beatrice.

At Rossetti's funeral, in a fit of despair, he placed manuscripts of his poems in Elizabeth's coffin and vowed to leave poetry. A few years later, he decided to publish his youthful poems; in order to get them, Siddal’s grave in Highgate Cemetery was opened. Witnesses said that, despite the passage of years, Lizzie appeared to be sleeping, not dead. The body simply mummified, and the rest was completed by the uncertain light of torches and the wild imagination of the artists present. Dante Gabriel himself took out the manuscript - to once again touch the hair of the deceased.
The book was published and was a huge success - in no small part due to the eerie story of her return to the world. The book of poems was published in 1870. But many acquaintances and friends did Rossetti’s act.
Here is one of his poems.

sudden light

Yes, I was here a long time ago.
When, why - those days are silent.
I remember the canvas at the door,
Herbal aroma,
The sigh of the wind, the river is a bright spot.

I've known you for a long time.
I don’t remember meetings, separations, my friend:
But you're a swallow out the window
I suddenly looked
And the past - it came to me.

Was it all a long time ago?
And time, rushing away,
Like life, returning love is given:
Overcome death
Prophesy one thing for us both day and night?

In 1871, Rossetti fell in love again. This was the wife of his friend William Morris. They became lovers, and Jane posed for Rossetti a lot. The husband was apparently worried, but did not interfere with their connection. Jane said that she never loved her husband, and about Rosetti she said that he was completely different from other people.

The photographs show that Jane was indeed pretty.

Jane Burden was born in Oxford. The father worked as a groom, and the mother was illiterate and most likely came to Oxford to work as a servant. Very little is known about Jane's childhood, but it is clear that it was spent in poverty and deprivation.
In October 1857, Jane and her sister Elizabeth went to a performance at the Drury Lane Theatre, where Jane was noticed by artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, who were part of a group of artists who painted murals at the Oxford Union based on the Arthurian cycle. They were amazed by her beauty and persuaded her to pose. At first, Jane was a model for Queen Guinevere at Rossetti, then she posed for Morris for the painting “Beautiful Isolde,” who proposed to her and they got married. He drew sketches and wrote on the back: “I can’t draw you, but I love you.” The difference in their social status did not stop him - he was a socialist. Jane fell in love with Rossetti, but he had already connected his life with Siddal.
Morris was a publisher, writer, artist and one of the ideologists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He wrote the novel "News from Nowhere". Morris believed that it was necessary to revive not only medieval painting, but also medieval crafts. On his estate, he organized workshops (under the general name “Arts & Crafts”, that is, art and crafts), where they made furniture by hand, wove carpets and tapestries, made potter's wheel dishes He himself was an excellent weaver. "Arts & Crafts" outlived the owner and existed until the 1st World War.

Before her marriage, Jane was extremely poorly educated, since her parents most likely envisioned a career as a servant for her. After her engagement, Jane Morris began taking private lessons, learned French and Italian, and became a skilled pianist. Her manners and speech were so transformed that her contemporaries characterized her as a “royal” person. She later entered English high society and may have served as the inspiration for Eliza Dolittle in Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. In 1896, Jane buried her husband, William Morris. Jane Morris herself met the twentieth century, enjoyed the fame that accompanied the paintings of many Pre-Raphaelites, and died on January 26, 1914 in Bath.

Proserpine.

Rossetti's later years were marked by an increasingly morbid mood, he became addicted to alcohol and chloral hydrate, and lived the life of a recluse.
In 1872, there was a wave of anonymous, brutal attacks on Rossetti's work. He was always sensitive to any criticism, so he experienced a nervous breakdown and even attempted suicide by drinking a bottle of opium tincture (apparently, he remembered his first wife). He survived, but began to suffer from persecution delusions and was considered insane for some time. Despite this, Rossetti continued to work and write, and he had many followers in both art and poetry. For another two years the artist lived in Kelmscott Manor, and Jane remained next to him. From the outside it looked like a lonely artist sharing a cottage with married couple– they took it in half. In 1874, Morris refused to pay his share of the cottage's rent. This meant that, following social traditions, Jane could no longer stay there with Rossetti if she did not want to completely ruin her own reputation. Rossetti rented a cottage on the Sussex coast from 1875 to 1876, and Jane returned to him and stayed with him for four months. In 1877, Rossetti had another nervous breakdown. Jane decided to finally break up with him. She began to understand how unhinged the artist’s mind had become, constantly weakened by alcohol and drugs. Rossetti spent the rest of his life as a recluse. However, friendly correspondence with Rossetti continued until his death.
From 1881 he began to suffer from hallucinations and attacks of paralysis. He was transported to seaside resort Birchington-on-Sea and left in the care of a nurse. There he died on April 9, 1882.

Another Rossetti model was Alexa Wilding.
Monna Vanna (Vanity Woman) or Belcolore (1866)

Alexa Wilding's working-class family came from Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Alexa herself was born in Surrey around 1845, the daughter of a piano maker. According to the 1861 census, when Wilding was about sixteen, she lived at 23 Warwick Lane with her 59-year-old grandmother and two uncles. She worked, but by the standards of the time her living conditions were not particularly bad, and she could read and write. By the time she met Rossetti, she was a dressmaker and dreamed of becoming an actress.
Rossetti first saw Wilding one evening on London's Strand in 1865 and was impressed by her beauty. She agreed to pose for him the next day, but did not show up at the appointed time. Perhaps she was frightened by the dubious reputation of models of that time. Weeks passed, and Rossetti had already discarded the idea of ​​​​a painting that had come to his mind, in which it was very important for him to see this particular model, when he again saw Alexa on the street. He jumped out of the cab he was riding in and convinced her to go straight to his studio. He paid Wilding for a week to pose only for him, because he was afraid that other artists might hire her too. They had a long relationship; There is information that after Rossetti's death in 1882, Wilding, although her financial situation was not entirely prosperous, regularly went to lay a wreath on his grave in Birchington.
Wilding herself never married, but lived with two small children. They may have been illegitimate, but it is speculated that they may have been the children of Alexa's uncle. According to records from 1861, she was a property owner and rentier - a significant achievement for a working-class girl.
According to her death certificate, Alexa Wilding died on April 25, 1884, at the age of 37. The cause of death was given as peritonitis and final exhaustion; sixteen months earlier she had been diagnosed with a tumor of the spleen. This may be the same ailment that caused Rossetti to believe she was ill and left her unable to pose at times.

Speaking about the Pre-Raphaelites, of course, one cannot do without John Everett Millais (1829-1896), one of the 3 founders of the commonwealth.

John Everett Millais. Ariel lures Ferdinand (Based on a plot from Shakespeare's The Tempest).

Christ in his parents' house. The boy shows his parents the stigmata on his palms - where the nails from the crucifixion will be.

Millet was a child prodigy, and at the age of 11 he entered the Royal Academy of Arts, becoming the youngest student in the history of the Academy. Already his student works were exhibited at academic exhibitions and received first places. In 1848, at one of the exhibitions, Millet met Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and together with them founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. At the same time, he continues to exhibit at academic exhibitions. He was also supported by the critic John Ruskin, who immediately saw an outstanding talent in Mill.
In the summer of 1853, Ruskin and his wife Effie invited Millais to go together for the summer to Glenfinlas.

Release order. Effie posed for a female figure (the wife of a freed Scot) (1746, 1853)

Effie was born in Perth, Scotland, and lived in Bowerswell, the house where Ruskin's grandfather committed suicide. Her family knew Ruskin's father, who encouraged a connection between them. In 1841, Ruskin wrote a fantasy novel, The King of the Golden River, for twelve-year-old Effie. After their wedding in 1846, they traveled to Venice, where Ruskin collected material for his book The Stones of Venice. However, due to the difference in temperament of the spouses, the sociable and flirtatious Effie soon began to feel suppressed by Ruskin's categorical personality. Five years after the wedding, she was still a virgin, as Ruskin constantly postponed the consummation of the marriage. The reasons for this are unclear, but they include an aversion to certain parts of her body. Effie later wrote to her father: "He cites various reasons, hatred of children, religious reasons, desire to preserve my beauty, and finally this year he told me the real reason ... that the woman he imagined was significantly different from the one “What he sees in me, and the reason why he did not make me his wife, was his disgust with my person from the first evening of April 10.” Ruskin confirmed this in a statement to his lawyer during the divorce proceedings. “It may seem strange that I should have abstained from a woman whom most people find so attractive. But although her face is beautiful, her personality is not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were certain details in her personality that completely prevented this.” The reason for this aversion to “details in her person” is unknown. Various suggestions have been made, including a dislike of Effie's pubic hair or her menstrual blood.
Millais and Effie fell in love and, after her scandalous divorce from Ruskin (In 1854, their marriage was declared invalid), they got married. During their marriage, Effie bore Millais eight children, one of whom was the famous gardener and bird artist, John Gilles Millais. When Ruskin later wished to be engaged to a young girl, Rose La Touche, her concerned parents wrote to Effie, who in her response described Ruskin as an oppressive husband. Without doubting Effie's sincerity, it is worth noting that her intervention contributed to the breakdown of the engagement, which, in turn, probably served as the reason for Ruskin's mental disorder.
Marriage changed Millet: to support his family, he had to create paintings faster and in greater quantities, and also sell them at a high price.
Millet completely renounced the views and ideas of Pre-Raphaelitism, but gained enormous popularity and a huge fortune, earning up to 30 thousand pounds a year. He became a portrait painter and became the first English artist, received the title of baronet (in 1885). In 1896 he was elected president of the Royal Academy. In his portraits, Millet usually depicts famous people holding high public positions.

I would like to show a few more paintings by other authors.

Ford Madox Brown. "Take your son, sir." (1851-1857). The unfinished painting depicts the artist's wife and son Arthur.

Brown rewrote the painting more than once. His first wife died at age 27, leaving a 3-year-old daughter. After 2 years, he met Emma Matilda Hill, the daughter of a Herefordshire farmer, who was his model. In 1850 she gave birth to his second daughter (both daughters Lucy and Catherine later became artists). In 1853 Emma and Brown got married. Witnesses were Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Thomas Seddon. Two years later, Emma gave birth to the artist's son, Oliver. In September 1856, the couple had a son, Arthur, who lived only a year. After the death of her youngest son, Emma became addicted to alcohol, which later, especially after the death of her eldest son Oliver, took catastrophic forms.
Oliver showed great promise as an artist and poet, but in 1874 the young man died of blood poisoning. Rossetti wrote the sonnet “Untimely Loss” on his death.

The exhibition also includes landscapes. Here are two of them.
Sandys. Autumn

Thomas Seddon. View of Jerusalem and the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

It is not surprising that the very idea of ​​​​breaking with academicism in painting arose among students, moreover, among students of the British Royal Academy of Arts. The discussion initially arose between three students: Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, and John Evertt Millais. Young and far from mediocre artists reflected on the present and future of painting, shared reform plans and eventually came to the creation of the secret “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.” It was in opposition to the official line of the Academy and proclaimed a return to the ideals of the era “before Raphael.” Soon the secret society already included seven artists.

The Brotherhood had its own magazine, Rostock, and Dante Rossetti, for example, signed some paintings with the initials P.R.B, noting his membership in this group. The first postulates of the society were also published in the magazine. Over time, the ideas of the Brotherhood took shape in unified system, which helped develop Pre-Raphaelism in culture.

After several years of existence, the Brotherhood disbanded, and each of its members went their own way. But even after the destruction of the organization, the theses and thoughts of the Pre-Raphaelites excited the public. Their ideas penetrated into many areas of culture: design, illustration, decorative arts and literature.

Provisions of the theory

Initially, the Pre-Raphaelites published theses on reform in art in their own journal. They called for the return of art to reality and naturalness, and also heralded the abandonment of mythological and historical subjects worn out to holes. Beauty should not be abstract, alien to the naturalness of man.

It is logical that one of the main postulates of the direction was working from life. Often in the paintings of artists you can find their relatives or friends. Historians of painting meticulously examine their canvases and find interesting parallels and coincidences.

The Brotherhood also turned to painting techniques. Their task was to move away from the dark tones provided by the bitumen used by artists at that time. They wanted a pure painterly image, high precision in detail and rich colors characteristic of the Quattrocento era. To achieve this effect, they applied a layer of white to the primed canvas, cleaned the canvas of oil, and then worked with translucent paints on top. The technique made it possible to achieve purity of the drawing and extraordinary lightness at that time.

The excessive naturalism and novelty of the approach aroused not only interest, but also rejection in society. However, the authoritative critic John Ruskin became interested in Pre-Raphaelite painting. He formalized the postulates of the “Brotherhood” into a logical and harmonious artistic system, and revealed the Pre-Raphaelites to the world, helped to understand their motives and art.

Ruskin substantiated several principles of this artistic movement and supported them financially. Maximum detail was justified by the artists’ attention to the very essence of things, and their reluctance to be satisfied with generally accepted ideas about nature and man. The Pre-Raphaelites were so attentive to detail that in their desire to paint from life they came to the point of awe at the smallest details, spending an incredible amount of time on fresh air and in working with models.

Another principle highlighted by Ruskin is fidelity to nature, combined with fidelity to spiritual principles. In every branch and leaf, in every drop of water, the artists saw the creation of God, and therefore treated everything with awe and reverence. The return to spirituality was seen as a new birth and a turn to the religiosity of the early Renaissance.

The critic's support influenced the position of the Pre-Raphaelites in society; they became more popular and even became fashionable.

Artists and their creations

John Evert Millais, Ophelia
Millet was one of the founders of the movement. Extremely talented, he became one of the youngest applicants to the Royal Academy of Arts. The painting was created by Millet during many hours of plein air in the fresh air. An artist could spend up to 11 hours a day working! The artist directed all his attention to creating the landscape, so the figure of the girl was the final detail of the canvas. Millais was so obsessed with detail that he forced model Elizabeth Siddal to spend hours in a bathtub filled to the brim. The girl caught a cold, and the story became one of the legends of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Lady Lilith"
The artist spent 2 years painting the first version of the painting, and later he rewrote the girl’s face with a new model. The painting forms a diptych with the work “Sibyl Palmifera”. What is noteworthy is that Rossetti painted sonnets of his own composition on the frames. "Lady Lilith" is an ode to beauty. The spirit of symbolism is strong in the picture: white roses, poppies, the contents of the dressing table. Historians call this work feminist: the woman is concentrated great power and beauty.

Evelyn de Morgan, "Medea"
The artist turns to ancient Greek myths and takes one of the most dramatic images in literature. At the center of the work is the red-haired woman beloved by the Pre-Raphaelites.

Hunt William Holman, “The Hired Shepherd” Holman’s brush was by no means pastoral. In the best traditions of “Brotherhood,” the picture simply glows with bright colors. All plans are carefully worked out, the work is interesting to look at. Historians believe that Holman put into the painting his bewilderment at the contemporary religious debate and the role of priests in it.

Ford Murdoch Brown, Farewell to England
At the center of the work is an absolutely earthly theme – emigration, which was heard with renewed vigor in the artist’s contemporary Britain. At the center is a family who is looking for new house. In the picture you can find the artist’s daughter and wife, he painted from life, paying tribute to the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites. Although Brown was never a member of the Brotherhood, he supported its ideals, which was reflected in this work.

Britain is proud of its Pre-Raphaelite movement, because it is one of the brightest artistic directions, which originated in England. Despite the fact that the works of these artists were criticized at first, they found their place in world culture and radically influenced both modern art and popular culture.