Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Art and Design

by Tim Barringer (Editor), Jason Rosenfeld (Editor), Alison Smith (Editor)

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood shook the mid-19th-century art world. Effectively Britain’s first modern art movement, the Brotherhood combined rebellion and revivalism, scientific precision, and imaginative grandeur. Today, the works of the Pre-Raphaelites are among the best known of all English paintings, and yet they have often been dismissed or misunderstood as Victoriana or escapism. This fascinating book convincingly corrects that view, examining works in a wide variety of media and demonstrating the broad scope of the movement’s revolutionary ideas about art, design, and society.

Led by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, the Pre-Raphaelites’ unflinchingly radical style, inspired by the purity of early Renaissance painting, defied convention, provoked critics, and entranced audiences. Many of their most famous paintings are featured, including Millais’s Ophelia and Ford Madox Brown’s The Last of England. This book also includes sculpture, photography, and the applied arts, the last of which shows the important role the Brotherhood played in the early development of the Arts and Crafts movement and the socialist ideas of the poet, designer, and theorist William Morris.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Pre Raphaelite

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2013

About the author

Tim Barringer is Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art at Yale University.

Reviews

[Johns · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magnificent catalog of significant art from the PRB. It will give you insight not only as to individual works but also the movement as a whole. I came away not caring so much for the work of DGR but a much greater thirst for the work of Edward Burne-Jones. Take the time to read all the text and you'll grow in your appreciation for this revolution in British art.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really wonderful overview of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and thier legacy and inspirations. Touches on all the most important works related to the movement and I really appreciated that it covered the women artists/muses around them as well as some of Siddal's pieces.

[Minervas Owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pre-Raphaelites show at the National Gallery of Art in 2013 is one of the most impressive exhibitions I've seen. (https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2013/...) Great to revisit the art works via this catalog.