Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
What was the pre-raphaelite brotherhood?
They were a group of seven painters(then later more), poets and art critics who rejected the influence of
“mechanistic” styles of art such as those adopted by Michelangelo and Raphael. They sought to return to
the intensity and complexity of styles seen before Raphael.
Who was involved?
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a gifted poet as well as a painter, William Holman Hunt, and John
Everett Millais, all under 25 years of age. The painter James Collinson, the painter and critic F.G.
Stephens, the sculptor Thomas Woolner, and the critic William Michael Rossetti (Dante Gabriel’s
brother) joined them by invitation. The painters William Dyce and Ford Madox Brown, who acted in
part as mentors to the younger men, came to adapt their own work to the Pre-Raphaelite style.
When were they painting?
They painted between 1848-1854 and composed much literature too during this time.
What were their beliefs?
➔ Art should be as similar to the real world as possible.
➔ Art styles should be bright and detailed ones of Italian Quattrocento art.
➔ Painting out-of-doors makes painting even more realistic.
➔ Rote learning(memorisation) had replaced truth and experience.
➔ Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting
influence on the academic teaching of art
In what ways were they rebelling against convention?
They sought to defy the conventions of art by painting brightly coloured, evenly lit pictures that
appeared almost flat. They emphasised an almost photographic representation of even humble objects
particularly those in the immediate foreground and chose subjects from Shakespeare, Tennyson to Keats.
How were their paintings received?
When they were first painted in the mid 19th century, they were regarded as assaults on the eye,
objectionable in terms of their realism and morally shocking.
What was the pre-raphaelite brotherhood?
They were a group of seven painters(then later more), poets and art critics who rejected the influence of
“mechanistic” styles of art such as those adopted by Michelangelo and Raphael. They sought to return to
the intensity and complexity of styles seen before Raphael.
Who was involved?
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a gifted poet as well as a painter, William Holman Hunt, and John
Everett Millais, all under 25 years of age. The painter James Collinson, the painter and critic F.G.
Stephens, the sculptor Thomas Woolner, and the critic William Michael Rossetti (Dante Gabriel’s
brother) joined them by invitation. The painters William Dyce and Ford Madox Brown, who acted in
part as mentors to the younger men, came to adapt their own work to the Pre-Raphaelite style.
When were they painting?
They painted between 1848-1854 and composed much literature too during this time.
What were their beliefs?
➔ Art should be as similar to the real world as possible.
➔ Art styles should be bright and detailed ones of Italian Quattrocento art.
➔ Painting out-of-doors makes painting even more realistic.
➔ Rote learning(memorisation) had replaced truth and experience.
➔ Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting
influence on the academic teaching of art
In what ways were they rebelling against convention?
They sought to defy the conventions of art by painting brightly coloured, evenly lit pictures that
appeared almost flat. They emphasised an almost photographic representation of even humble objects
particularly those in the immediate foreground and chose subjects from Shakespeare, Tennyson to Keats.
How were their paintings received?
When they were first painted in the mid 19th century, they were regarded as assaults on the eye,
objectionable in terms of their realism and morally shocking.
