Pre-Raphaelites (prē'-răf`ēəlīts'), brotherhood of English painters and poets formed in 1848 in protest against the low standards of British art. The principal founders were D. G. Rossetti Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (dăn`tē gā`brēəl rōsĕt`ē)
..... Click the link for more information. , W. Holman Hunt Hunt, William Holman, 1827–1910, English painter. Hunt was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and one of its most conscientious exponents. His paintings are often crude in color and laborious in technique, but are completely sincere in their devotion
..... Click the link for more information. , and John Millais Millais, Sir John Everett (mĭlā`), 1829–96, English painter.
..... Click the link for more information. . In poetry as well as painting, the Pre-Raphaelites turned away from the growing materialism of industrialized England. They sought refuge, through literary symbolism and imagery, in the beauty and comparative simplicity of the medieval world. In the works of the Italian painters prior to Raphael, they found a happy innocence of style that they tried to imitate. Influenced by the Nazarenes Nazarenes (năz`ərēnz), group of German artists of the early 19th cent., who attempted to revive Christian art. In 1809, J. F.
..... Click the link for more information. , a similar group of German painters founded in Rome in 1810, the Pre-Raphaelites declared themselves devotees of nature and truth. In the early 1850s their works were violently criticized, first by Charles Dickens, as being vulgar and ugly. They were defended by John Ruskin and attracted numerous followers, among whom were Edward Burne-Jones Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 1833–98. English painter and decorator, b. Birmingham. Expected to enter the Church, he went to Exeter College, Oxford, where he met William Morris , who became his lifelong friend.
..... Click the link for more information. , G. F. Watts Watts, George Frederic, 1817–1904, English painter and sculptor. He studied at the Royal Academy and in Italy, where he developed an enthusiasm for Renaissance painting and Greek sculpture that greatly influenced his work.
..... Click the link for more information. , and William Morris Morris, William, 1834–96, English poet, artist, craftsman, designer, social reformer, and printer. He has long been considered one of the great Victorians and has been called the greatest English designer of the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , but the group disbanded after 1853 and the movement died out before the end of the century. The paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites are characteristically nostalgic in tone and bright in color. Despite their predilection for simplicity, they were highly meticulous in detail and mannered in style. Eventually their painting became as artificial as the historical painting they had organized to protest. There is a fine collection of Pre-Raphaelite works at the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, Del.

Bibliography

See J. D. Hunt, The Pre-Raphaelite Imagination (1969); J. Nicoll, The Pre-Raphaelites (1970); L. Stevenson, The Pre-Raphaelite Poets (1972); J. Sambrook, ed., Pre-Raphaelitism: A Collection of Critical Essays (1976); T. Hilton, Pre-Raphaelites (1985); J. Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women: Images of Femininity (1988).

Pre-Raphaelites

Group of young British painters, led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, who banded together in 1848 in reaction against what they considered the unimaginative and artificial historical painting of the 18th and early 19th centuries, seeking to express a new moral seriousness and sincerity in their works. Their name, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, honoured the simple depiction of nature in Italian art before Raphael; the symbolism, imagery, and mannered style of their paintings often suggest a faux-medieval world. Later members included Edward Burne-Jones and George Frederic Watts (1817–1904). The group also functioned as a school of writers who often used medieval settings, sometimes with shocking effect, as in William Morris's The Defence of Guenevere (1858), which deals with issues of love and sex. Though active less than 10 years, the group had a profound influence on the arts.

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Bibliography

Pre-Raphaelites

Pre-Raphaelites
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