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The Pre-Raphaelites
This is a priceless testimony of the Pre-Raphaelite group since its author was the father of a major player of the movement. Bates work brings back to life the true spirit of the group while analysing in depth the historical roots and relationships between the artists within the group
199 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 17, 2015
"The young men spoke of simple, individual, conscientious art employing neither formulae nor studio practices, the art of Benozzo Gozzoli and of Orcagna. “In this art, there is only the most meticulous, thorough imitation of nature possible, and the naive expression of religious ideas. Look at the expression of this horse! And see how this hermit prays with all his heart! And what colour should all this be? It should have the colours of van Eyck’s work, fresh and brilliant! Colours applied directly to a white canvas... What has made art banal is that there is no longer this direct pursuit of nature. And it was lost quite a while ago! Rubens had already lost it, as had Carrache... even Jules Romain, even Raphael had lost it! To find masters that we can follow fearlessly, we will need to look to the period before Raphael, ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ art.” The night carried on, and teacups were emptied one after the other. When the last one was finished, Pre-Raphaelitism had been born."
January 24, 2015
I don't think I could say what the Pre-Raphaelites are after reading this text but the illustrations are numerous and good so I could recognize one... Each page has three details from a particular painting and a paragraph or so of text. The next page is the full painting from which the details were taken. I thought the selection of the details interesting and sometimes unexpected.
March 31, 2011
This was a fun read; I ordered this book as a part of my attempt to bolster the “N” shelves here at work, along with several other lovely things I’ve been glancing through when things are quiet. I have absolutely no claims to having serious opinions about art, but it interests me to try to figure out why I like what I like. And I find art books are helpful in achieving this. Generally speaking, I disregard at least half of what the art critics have to say as being either way over my head, pretentious, or overly technical (and this book is no exception, hence the three stars), but it’s worth sifting through for that paragraph that makes you think, “Yes – that is exactly what it is that makes this special. I never would have thought of it that way”.
This book was a survey of Pre-Raphaelite and Pre-Raphaelite inspired art, which was basically a mid-to-late nineteenth century English school of art that was focused on shifting away from the overly posed, mannered, and dingy painting milieu of the day into something more natural, brighter, and fresh. Not every painting is my cup of tea, but I like the ideas behind the movement, the colors, the subjects, and the overall vibe. This book had the advantage of being loaded with gorgeous, full-page color prints in addition to being informative. I had vaguely admired some of the works and artists in this movement, but I didn’t have much of an understanding of their interactions with each other or what they were trying to accomplish. The personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book made for good reading as well; these artists were very tangled up in one another’s personal lives, and it was delightfully soap-operaish.
As a reader, I can’t help but be drawn to their subjects. One has to imagine that Keats would approve of John William Waterhouse’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci. It’s stunning, and I love how the knight almost seems like part of the background of the woods – the brightness and glow of the woman’s skin contrasted with the subdued colors of the rest of the painting lead the eye straight to her face every time. Similarly, I’ve always liked Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott for its attractive melancholy, and I thought Waterhouse and others in the movement expressed the tragedy of her character wonderfully. William Morris’ La Belle Iseult also works with medieval legend, but many of the artists use classical myths for their subject. The gorgeous long lines and elegant poses of Psyche’s Wedding by Edward Burne-Jones is probably my favorite of this type, but I also was wowed by the naturalistic beauty of Waterhouse’s naiads. And to top it off, there are the wonderful Shakespeare-inspired paintings. I think just about all of them had a crack at Ophelia, but John Everett Millais’ famous version is my favorite.
It’s interesting to me how passive the men are in nearly all of these paintings, when they are even present at all. The author didn’t so much as mention it, but after the first 20 paintings or so I was struck with the idea and flipped through the whole book to see if my theory held up. I skipped just about every quantitative methods class I could, but I’m pretty sure the results were significant – in fact, I only found one or maybe one and a half pieces that went against the rule. To give you some idea of what I mean, in Edmund Blair Leighton’s The Accolade, a queen knights a kneeling man with a bowed head; in Burne-Jones’ Perseus Series, the hero looks downright frightened and spooked of Andromeda; Rossetti’s Before the Battle shows more men kneeling before a powerful-looking woman, and his Horatio Discovering the Madness of Ophelia shows Hamlet’s friend anxiously holding the arm of the crazed but utterly confident Ophelia. Perhaps the most noticeable examples of this theme are Waterhouse’s various naiad paintings - in A Naiad (Hylas and a Water-Nymph) , a nymph sneaks up on a sleeping man whose pose screams “vulnerable”, and in Hylas and the Nymphs a man is being literally pulled into the water by a naiad or two. Also, in Burne-Jones’ King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, the king is placed several steps below the glowing girl and just stares up at her like a puppy while she looks coolly ahead. In painting after painting after painting, the men’s eyes and bodies are turned away while the women have their shoulders squared and eyes set straight at the viewer. It’s too repetitive not to mean something, but I can’t exactly put my finger on what I think it’s about. Maybe these artists found Victorian England’s notorious insistence that women be submissive and dependent a bit boring, as I certainly do. Maybe it was a more philosophical statement about the artist’s deference to Beauty or some such thing. But, it’s also possible that they just liked painting pretty girls, and so they focused on that. Who knows?
Speaking of girls, how fantastic is the model for nearly all of Rossetti’s paintings? Jane Morris is, to me, the face of Pre-Raphaelite art. She is not pretty in the typical sense, but she had a wonderfully interesting face, with its odd mouth, angular lines, and expressive eyes. She obviously deeply inspired Rossetti as she appears in painting after painting of his, and one has to wonder how that worked with her being the wife of his good friend William Morris (who used her as the model for the Iseult painting I mentioned earlier). It seems like nearly all of Rossetti’s best work features her, and when you look at some of his other stuff (e.g. Paolo and Francesca), you wish he had stuck to portraits of Jane.
This is good stuff and would make a decent coffee table book. My only qualm was with William Holman Hunt – I wasn’t feeling any of his paintings, frankly. There was a bizarre one with a goat that mystified me. The author does a good job of explaining the general themes, philosophy, and techniques of the movement without dissecting every picture, leaving the reader to do her own interpreting, which I appreciated.
This book was a survey of Pre-Raphaelite and Pre-Raphaelite inspired art, which was basically a mid-to-late nineteenth century English school of art that was focused on shifting away from the overly posed, mannered, and dingy painting milieu of the day into something more natural, brighter, and fresh. Not every painting is my cup of tea, but I like the ideas behind the movement, the colors, the subjects, and the overall vibe. This book had the advantage of being loaded with gorgeous, full-page color prints in addition to being informative. I had vaguely admired some of the works and artists in this movement, but I didn’t have much of an understanding of their interactions with each other or what they were trying to accomplish. The personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book made for good reading as well; these artists were very tangled up in one another’s personal lives, and it was delightfully soap-operaish.
As a reader, I can’t help but be drawn to their subjects. One has to imagine that Keats would approve of John William Waterhouse’s La Belle Dame Sans Merci. It’s stunning, and I love how the knight almost seems like part of the background of the woods – the brightness and glow of the woman’s skin contrasted with the subdued colors of the rest of the painting lead the eye straight to her face every time. Similarly, I’ve always liked Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott for its attractive melancholy, and I thought Waterhouse and others in the movement expressed the tragedy of her character wonderfully. William Morris’ La Belle Iseult also works with medieval legend, but many of the artists use classical myths for their subject. The gorgeous long lines and elegant poses of Psyche’s Wedding by Edward Burne-Jones is probably my favorite of this type, but I also was wowed by the naturalistic beauty of Waterhouse’s naiads. And to top it off, there are the wonderful Shakespeare-inspired paintings. I think just about all of them had a crack at Ophelia, but John Everett Millais’ famous version is my favorite.
It’s interesting to me how passive the men are in nearly all of these paintings, when they are even present at all. The author didn’t so much as mention it, but after the first 20 paintings or so I was struck with the idea and flipped through the whole book to see if my theory held up. I skipped just about every quantitative methods class I could, but I’m pretty sure the results were significant – in fact, I only found one or maybe one and a half pieces that went against the rule. To give you some idea of what I mean, in Edmund Blair Leighton’s The Accolade, a queen knights a kneeling man with a bowed head; in Burne-Jones’ Perseus Series, the hero looks downright frightened and spooked of Andromeda; Rossetti’s Before the Battle shows more men kneeling before a powerful-looking woman, and his Horatio Discovering the Madness of Ophelia shows Hamlet’s friend anxiously holding the arm of the crazed but utterly confident Ophelia. Perhaps the most noticeable examples of this theme are Waterhouse’s various naiad paintings - in A Naiad (Hylas and a Water-Nymph) , a nymph sneaks up on a sleeping man whose pose screams “vulnerable”, and in Hylas and the Nymphs a man is being literally pulled into the water by a naiad or two. Also, in Burne-Jones’ King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, the king is placed several steps below the glowing girl and just stares up at her like a puppy while she looks coolly ahead. In painting after painting after painting, the men’s eyes and bodies are turned away while the women have their shoulders squared and eyes set straight at the viewer. It’s too repetitive not to mean something, but I can’t exactly put my finger on what I think it’s about. Maybe these artists found Victorian England’s notorious insistence that women be submissive and dependent a bit boring, as I certainly do. Maybe it was a more philosophical statement about the artist’s deference to Beauty or some such thing. But, it’s also possible that they just liked painting pretty girls, and so they focused on that. Who knows?
Speaking of girls, how fantastic is the model for nearly all of Rossetti’s paintings? Jane Morris is, to me, the face of Pre-Raphaelite art. She is not pretty in the typical sense, but she had a wonderfully interesting face, with its odd mouth, angular lines, and expressive eyes. She obviously deeply inspired Rossetti as she appears in painting after painting of his, and one has to wonder how that worked with her being the wife of his good friend William Morris (who used her as the model for the Iseult painting I mentioned earlier). It seems like nearly all of Rossetti’s best work features her, and when you look at some of his other stuff (e.g. Paolo and Francesca), you wish he had stuck to portraits of Jane.
This is good stuff and would make a decent coffee table book. My only qualm was with William Holman Hunt – I wasn’t feeling any of his paintings, frankly. There was a bizarre one with a goat that mystified me. The author does a good job of explaining the general themes, philosophy, and techniques of the movement without dissecting every picture, leaving the reader to do her own interpreting, which I appreciated.
January 11, 2021
Muito bom, embora infelizmente o livro ignore e nem mencione John William Waterhouse, um dos pintores mais talentosos do Pré-Rafaelismo.
December 27, 2019
Note: This uncultured bumpkin read the *English* version of this one, thank you very much, but all I could find on Goodreads was the French. de La Sizeranne offers a rich history of these painters and the stories behind their works. My favorites were of Shakespeare's Ophelia...and there are several.
November 23, 2019
A good introduction to this period of art
I finally was able to see the pictures in color (they were black and white on my kindle). I had art history in college 48 years ago.
I finally was able to see the pictures in color (they were black and white on my kindle). I had art history in college 48 years ago.
January 7, 2022
Disappointed
It was the best introduction if you are interested in this subject. The words do not link to the pictures.
It was the best introduction if you are interested in this subject. The words do not link to the pictures.
August 10, 2023
3.5 stars
December 19, 2016
This was an absolutely incredible book. Instead of an historical overview of the PRB, it talked more about their art, both what they wanted to do and what they did. And, even more importantly, it brought out points no other book I've read on the subject did. Like that the ideals of the PRB were a starting point, not something that they felt they had to adhere to rigidly forever. And why they even banded together as a group, instead of just painting. One standout was in elaborating on a quote of Ruskin's, where he says the artist learns to record everything, without editing. Sizeranne points out, correctly, that no other book continues the quote, which says that once you do that, then you can do anything you want with the painting!
In addition, the text is engagingly written - I practically tore through it. And the artwork was plentiful, good quality, and large size, perfect to see the works that he's describing.
I would have given this five stars, except for one flaw. After describing the PRB in exquisite detail and sensibility, more so than any other book I've read, the author announces in the last chapter that their work just isn't that good. He loves their ideals, but he doesn't like their paintings.
That in itself is all right - lots of people do not like the Pre-Raphaelites. In fact, I first learned of the PRB when there was an exhibit and someone told me how much they hated it. But it seems like in a book series written, in part, for enthusiasts of that style, that they could have found someone who actually liked it! Nonetheless, his assessments, when he's not dismissing them, are so insightful that I still highly recommend the book.
In addition, the text is engagingly written - I practically tore through it. And the artwork was plentiful, good quality, and large size, perfect to see the works that he's describing.
I would have given this five stars, except for one flaw. After describing the PRB in exquisite detail and sensibility, more so than any other book I've read, the author announces in the last chapter that their work just isn't that good. He loves their ideals, but he doesn't like their paintings.
That in itself is all right - lots of people do not like the Pre-Raphaelites. In fact, I first learned of the PRB when there was an exhibit and someone told me how much they hated it. But it seems like in a book series written, in part, for enthusiasts of that style, that they could have found someone who actually liked it! Nonetheless, his assessments, when he's not dismissing them, are so insightful that I still highly recommend the book.
May 26, 2020
This is a nice, well-published book and yet it is one of the least satisfying art books in my recent art quest. The book has two independent components - an essay that covers a bit the history of the preraphaelite movement while focusing mostly a discussion of what it is and what it isn't. The second component is a good set of mostly preraphaelite paintings. Each left page of the book is the text, each right page is a picture. Moreover, three selected fragments of the picture are placed on the left of the text. This is a nice design - and partially good execution, on a good paper with reasonable color. The main problem is the quality of the essay and the connection with the paintings. The essay itself is quite vague with rather a low fraction of facts. Mostly it is the presentation of author's take on the movement. It could be OK if you are well-familiar with preraphaelites and want just another opinion on it - but for the book that aims to be an introduction of the preraphaelites for a new reader it is a bad choice of narration. Also, at no point the essay refers to any painting shown in the book, worse, it doesn't even mention more than a half of the artists featured in the book. As a result, the main value of the book is a reproduction of many paintings with good coverage of artists within and even some far away from preraphaelites in a good chronological order. It is a very small format book, but easy to hold and review - so the paintings could encourage some to look for more (and better) sources on preraphaelites.
December 3, 2022
A fascinating and richly illustrated account of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their influence in British art. The first two sections contain the history of the Brotherhood, their origins and the trials and tribulations they faced in their rise to prominence.
The third section attempts an explanation of what the Pre-Raphaelite philosophy was and is and how their actual practice diverged from their professed ideals in some cases.
The last section, called Intentions, looks at British art in general and the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites.
The book uses fairly large type and is a fairly quick read. I read the Kindle version.
The third section attempts an explanation of what the Pre-Raphaelite philosophy was and is and how their actual practice diverged from their professed ideals in some cases.
The last section, called Intentions, looks at British art in general and the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites.
The book uses fairly large type and is a fairly quick read. I read the Kindle version.
December 30, 2015
I was quite moved by the conclusion that the author makes of the pre-raphaelite movement: it was all about being oneself.
English art before the three madmen: Rossetti, Millais and Hunt, was dull and rigid. Their new radical ideas, their disastrous lives, and their refined techniques turned the academy upside down and the critics one against the other.
The importance of the movement was introducing passion into cold, dark, academic paintings and opened a path for realism.
Pictures were marvelous and commentaries interesting.
A good book.
English art before the three madmen: Rossetti, Millais and Hunt, was dull and rigid. Their new radical ideas, their disastrous lives, and their refined techniques turned the academy upside down and the critics one against the other.
The importance of the movement was introducing passion into cold, dark, academic paintings and opened a path for realism.
Pictures were marvelous and commentaries interesting.
A good book.
February 5, 2021
This is such a beautiful book, I wish I owned it.
Favourite paintings/designs:
- 'Midsummer Eve' by Edward Robert Hughes
- 'Elaine' by Edward Burne-Jones
- 'Ophelia' by John Everett Millais
- any of the paintings by John William Waterhouse
Favourite paintings/designs:
- 'Midsummer Eve' by Edward Robert Hughes
- 'Elaine' by Edward Burne-Jones
- 'Ophelia' by John Everett Millais
- any of the paintings by John William Waterhouse
February 18, 2015
I wish the lovely images were close to the text that referred to them. I found myself using the index over and over to find the paintings being referred to.
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