The Pre-Raphaelites

by Michael Robinson, Foreword by Yvonna Januszewska

The work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of English painters, poets and critics is eternally popular. This illustrated reference book is packed with examples of work by all the key proponents and their influences.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

Reviews

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great sourcebook of Pre-Raphaelite art. I've read a bit on the PRB, but nothing beats just looking at a lot of their art. Possibly the most helpful part of the book was the small section on influences. Everyone knows The Birth of Venus but having it side-by-side with Burne-Jones really helped drive home the influences. Also, it was helpful in understanding how much later Victorian art (Waterhouse, Leighton, etc) was influenced by the PRB without becoming part of the actual movement.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous artwork! I love the romanticism of these paintings. This book is small, but contains a LOT of examples from this time period. Wish I could have a few originals hanging in my living room...

[Camelia Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handy introduction to Pre-raphaelite arts. It could be better organised.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most beautiful and infamous paintings included.
One of my favourites is the cover - Ophelia byJohn Everett Millais.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The P.R.B., despite the championing by Ruskin were never thought
very highly of by the conservative art world. Their height of
popularity was when it was reborn as the Arts and Crafts movement
with the decorative symbolism of Edward Burne-Jones. Then in the
early 20th century it was lumped together with Victorianism and
deemed hopelessly out of date but nothing could be further from
the truth. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848 by
a group of young painters who were completely fed up with the
stuffiness of the established painting academia. Robinson then
goes on to prove that in the last 30 years there has been a
complete turnaround with many well known modernists (Dali etc)
owing their style to the P.R.B.
Although only a compact book (though with 380 pages) the paintings
are gloriously reproduced with striking and vivid colours that
make you yearn to see the real thing. Every painter who ever strived
to paint within the PRB goals and framework is represented. The most
surprising artist is Elizabeth Siddal. She was a shop assistant whose
dreamy and beautiful face made her the first Pre-Raphaelite muse -
Millais used her first for his "Ophelia" and Rossetti became besotted
with her. She tried her hand at watercolour and while the painting
itself is amateurish, Robinson feels the structure and the placing
of the figures ("St. Patrick Spens" (1855)) is striking. There are
other female artists given their due. American Anna Lea Merrit, who
like her contemporary Mary Cassatt, went to Paris but, unlike
Cassatt, continued on to London to embrace the PRB vogue. Eleanor
Fortescue Brickdale, a great friend of Shaw's, who unfortunately
was forbidden to attend life classes because she was a woman.
The book is broken up into sections and while the critique is
unexciting, the pictures are the thing - each is given their own
page and there are paintings I have never encounterd before ie
Rossetti's "La Pia de Tolomei" which, for me, has to be the most
striking painting of Jane Morris. Anthony Frederick Sandys "Love's
Shadow", a picture of a wilful femme fatale (could it be Alexa
Wilding), Lord Leighton's "Flaming June" and Ford Madox Ford's
quite strange "Mauvais Sujet" - just awash with symbolism.
I would have liked a little bit of background about every painting
- it wouldn't have been hard. Symbolism and stories abound in every
picture. In "The Hireling Shepherd" (1851)- Holman Hunt, it is clear
that the local strumpet is luring the shepherd away from his duties
but in "The Pretty Baa Lambs" and "Our English Coasts" the pictorial
foreground is just to catch the viewer's eye away from some pretty
awful background as sheep lay dying. I'd really like to know the
background. Again with Millais, "The Woodsman's Daughter" definitely
looks like a moral painting with the eager little girl and the
sneering rich boy just whets my appetite to find out more. For
pure romanticism I just love Millais "The Hugenot" and "The Black
Brunswicker" - however did he get her dress to look like satin??

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent reference ans introduction to the most famous works of the pre-raphelites.