9781422271810

MASTERS OF ART

The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of English painters, poets, and art critics. Also known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the movement was founded in 1848 by seven members: William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens, and Thomas Woolner. The principles of the Pre-Raphaelites were shared with other artists of the period including Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes, Edward Burne-Jones, and John William Waterhouse, to name but a few. These young artists were inspired by the artwork of early Italian painters before Raphael, as well as fifteenth-century Flemish art. They were some of the first to complete artwork outdoors, in an effort to capture the minute details found in nature.

THE ART OF THE PRE-RAPHAELITES

T he Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, originally consisting of a secret group of seven young men, was formed in 1848 in London and lasted effectively for about five years. It was an artistic group of young student painters in the Royal Academy Schools and some of their friends, a very small part of the revolutionary spirit then motivating change throughout Europe at the point in history known as the “Year of Revolutions.” Following the French

Revolution of 1789 and the domination of Europe by the imperial ambition of Napoleon, 1848 heralded the overthrow of most European dynasties. A reformist spirit, inspired by a zeal for social justice introduced by the French Revolution, became a universal ambition in all European countries. It was, significantly, the year in which Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto , forecasting the fall of capitalism and the rise of a socialist society. In Britain, where Marx had settled and lived for the remainder of his life, events were less dramatic and did not result in the overthrow of monarchy or government, although the young Queen Victoria, who had come to the throne in 1837, was not yet secure on her throne or as loved and revered by the populace as she later became. Nevertheless, there were disturbances arising from the repeal of the Corn Laws and the growth of a strong national public feeling for government reforms led by a group known as the Chartists, the nearest that Britain came to overt active revolutionaries. In April of 1848, they organized a great meeting on Kennington Common in south London, which the Chartists hoped would

PLATE 1 Fair Rosamund (1854) Arthur Hughes Oil on canvas, 15 3 ⁄

4 x 12 inches (40 x 30.5 cm)

The Pre-Raphaelites were often inspired by medieval tales, and here Arthur Hughes portrayed the legend of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England, who in 1176 is said to have poisoned Rosamund Clifford, the king’s beautiful mistress and true love. Eleanor can be seen lurking in the doorway.

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