Pre-Raphaelites: the purpose of art, artists, tasks, paintings. Funny picture painters

17.07.2019

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Pre-Raphaelism is a purely English phenomenon. It manifested itself and developed in English poetry and painting in the second half of the 19th century.

The Pre-Raphaelites believed that modern English painting was in decline. To prevent its complete dying and to revive it, it is necessary to return to the simplicity and sincerity that characterized early Italian art.

The meaning of the term

The term "Pre-Raphaelites" literally means "before Raphael", and this is the era of the Early Renaissance. Representatives of the era "before Raphael" (XV-XVI centuries) in painting were Perugino, Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini. But the Pre-Raphaelites themselves lived much later, in the 19th century. The fact is that the name "Pre-Raphaelites" denoted a spiritual kinship with the Florentine artists of the Early Renaissance, they wanted this and aspired to it.

Pre-Raphaelite goals

The main goal of the Pre-Raphaelites was: to break with the academic tradition and blind imitation of the classics. This is reminiscent of the goal of our Wanderers, who were not satisfied with the conservative views and approaches to creativity that operated at the Imperial Academy of Arts. The similarity with the Itinerants, who were called "rebels", lies in the fact that the painting by John Everett Millais "Christ in the parental home" (1850) was also called "rebellion in art" for excessive realism.
Let's take a look at this picture.

John Everett Millais, Christ in the Home of the Parents (1850). Canvas, oil. 83.3 x 139.7 cm.Tate Gallery (London)
The painting depicts an episode from the childhood of Jesus Christ: the Mother of God is kneeling in the foreground of the painting, looking at the Son with compassion and pain. The boy, complaining, shows Her the wound on her arm. Probably, He was hurt by a nail, which Saint Anna pulls out of the table with tongs. At the table, Joseph and his assistants are busy with work. Young John the Baptist brings Christ a cup of water. Fresh shavings are lying on the floor of the workshop, sheep are visible in the corral outside the door.
This painting is not only simple and realistic, but also full of symbols. A wound in the palm of little Jesus, a drop of blood on his foot and nails symbolize the Crucifixion, a cup of water - the Baptism of Christ, a dove on the stairs - the Holy Spirit, a triangle on the wall - the Trinity, sheep - an innocent sacrifice.
Why was this painting called "a riot in art"? First, the biblical story is depicted here as a scene from real life. Secondly, the Holy Family is depicted by ordinary people, without an exalted halo, during ordinary earthly work. Third, Jesus was portrayed as an ordinary country boy.
Critics reacted sharply negatively about this work, and Charles Dickens even called the picture "low, vile, disgusting and repulsive."

And only only John Ruskin(English writer, artist, art theorist, literary critic and poet) spoke positively about her and about the work of the Pre-Raphaelites in general. From that time on, cooperation between the critic and the Pre-Raphaelites began.
The development of British art was determined by the activities of the Royal Academy of Arts (as in Russia by the Imperial Academy of Arts). The traditions of academism were preserved in it with great care. Pre-Raphaelite artists stated that they did not want to depict people and nature as abstractly beautiful, and events far from reality, that they were tired of depicting mythological, historical and religious subjects in their paintings. The Pre-Raphaelites believed that everything must be painted from life. They chose friends or relatives as models. For example, in the painting The Youth of the Virgin Mary, Rossetti portrayed his mother and sister Christina.

D. Rossetti "Youth of the Virgin Mary" (1848-1849). Tate Gallery (London)
Rossetti could paint a queen from a saleswoman, a goddess from a groom's daughter. Models of artists have become equal partners.
The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to return to the high detail and deep colors of the painters of the Quattrocento era (designation of the era of Italian art of the 15th century, correlated with the Early Renaissance period). They left the "armchair" painting and began to paint in nature, made changes to the traditional painting technique - they painted over white, which served as a primer, with translucent paints, removing oil with blotting paper. This technique made it possible to achieve bright colors and proved to be very durable - their work has been preserved in its original form to this day.
But contemporaries did not understand this and continued to criticize the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. D. Rossetti's painting "The Annunciation" was also attacked.

D. Rossetti "Annunciation" (1850). Canvas, oil. 73 x 41.9 cm.Tate Gallery (London)
The painting depicts a well-known Gospel scene: “In the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to the Virgin, betrothed to a husband named Joseph, from the house of David; the name of the Virgin: Mary. The Angel, coming in to Her, said: Hail, Blessed One! The Lord is with You; blessed are you between wives. She, seeing him, was embarrassed by his words and wondered what kind of greeting it would be. And the angel said to her: do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace with God; and behold, you will conceive in your womb, and you will bear a Son, and you will call His name Jesus ”(Gospel of Luke; 1: 26-31).
Rossetti deviated from the Christian canon and thus attracted strong criticism. The Mother of God on his canvas looks frightened, as if she recoiled from the angel with a white lily in her hands (a symbol of Mary's virginity). The picture is dominated by white, and the color of the Virgin is considered blue.

"Brotherhood of the Pre-Raphaelites"

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a secret society. At first, the society consisted of 7 "brothers": John Everett Millais, Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his younger brother Michael Rossetti, Thomas Woolner, Frederick Stevens and James Collinson. All of them were in opposition to the official artistic trends.
In 1853, the Brotherhood actually disintegrated, but in 1856 a new stage began in the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. But their main idea is aestheticism, stylization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius. At first, the leader of the movement was the same Rossetti, who, as one of the artists wrote, “was the planet around which we revolved. We even copied his manner of speaking. " Gradually, the leadership passed to Edward Burne-Jones, whose works are executed in the style of the early Pre-Raphaelites. In 1889, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he received the Legion of Honor for his painting "King Cofetua and the Beggar."

Edward Burne-Jones The King of Cofetua and the Beggar (1884). Canvas, oil. 293.4 x 135.9 cm.Tate Gallery (London)
The plot of the picture is based on legend. King Kofetua was not interested in women, until one day he met a pale, barefoot girl-beggar. She turned out to be very beautiful, and most importantly, virtuous. The king fell in love with her, and the beggar woman became queen.
This legend is mentioned in other works, including in the plays of Shakespeare.
In essence, the plot of this picture is one of the "eternal themes" - admiration for a beautiful lady, the search for beauty and perfect love.
At this time, pre-Raphaelism was no longer criticized, it penetrated into all aspects of life: furniture, decorative art, architecture, interior decoration, book design, illustrations.
Of particular note is the creation of a new female image in art by the Pre-Raphaelites.

A new type of female beauty

For the Pre-Raphaelites, this is a detached, calm, mysterious image, which would later be developed by Art Nouveau artists. Women on the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites resemble a medieval image of ideal beauty and femininity, which is admired and worshiped. But mystical, destructive beauty is also shown. For example, the painting by John William Waterhouse "Lady of Shallot" (1888).

The Lady of Shallot by John William Waterhouse (1888). Canvas, oil. 200 x 153 cm.Tate Gallery (London)
The painting is dedicated to the poem of the same name by Alfred Tennyson "The Sorceress Shallot" (translated by K. Balmont).
The poem tells the story of a girl named Elaine, who is cursed: she must remain in the tower on the island of Shallot and weave a long cloth forever. Shallot is located on a river flowing to Camelot. No one knows about Elaine's existence, because the curse forbids her from leaving the tower and even looking out of the window. She has a huge mirror in her room, which reflects the world around her, and the girl is engaged in weaving a tapestry, depicting on it the wonders of the world around her, which she managed to see. Gradually, the world takes over her more and more, and the lonely sitting in the tower becomes unbearable. One day she sees in the mirror how Sir Lancelot gallops to Camelot, and leaves the room to look at him from the window. At the same second, the curse is executed, the tapestry unravels, and the mirror cracks. Elaine flees the tower, finds a boat and writes her name on it. She floats down the river and sings a sad song, but dies before she reaches Camelot. It is found by the inhabitants, Lancelot is amazed at its beauty.
Waterhouse depicts the Lady of Shallot at the moment when she is already in the boat and holds in her hands the chain that secures the boat to the shore. Nearby lies the tapestry she was weaving. He is now forgotten, partially submerged in water. The candles and crucifix make the boat look like a funeral boat. The girl sings a farewell song.
The Pre-Raphaelites were attracted by spiritual purity and tragic love, unrequited love, an unattainable girl, a woman dying for love, marked by shame or curse, as well as a dead woman of extraordinary beauty. August Egg created a series of paintings "Past and Present", which shows how the family hearth is destroyed as a result of the mother's adultery. The woman lies on the floor, her face buried in the carpet, in a position of despair, and the bracelets on her arms resemble handcuffs. The older girl listens cautiously to what is happening in the room - she already understands that a misfortune has happened in the family. The man is desperate.

The first painting from the series "Past and Present" by August Egg (1837). London
The Pre-Raphaelites tried to paint the landscape with maximum accuracy.

D. Millet "Autumn Leaves" (1856)
D. Ruskin said about this painting: “For the first time the twilight is depicted so perfectly”.
Painters made sketches of tones from nature, reproducing them as brightly and distinctly as possible, so the Pre-Raphaelite landscape did not become widespread, and then impressionism came to replace it.

Poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites

Many of the Pre-Raphaelite artists were also poets. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his sister Christina Rossetti, George Meredith, William Morris and Algernon Swinburne have left a significant mark on English literature. Rossetti was fascinated by the poetry of the Italian Renaissance, especially the works of Dante. Rossetti created a cycle of sonnets "House of Life", which is the pinnacle of his work.
It was under the influence of the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites that the British decadence of the 1880s developed. Its most famous representative is Oscar Wilde.
Poet Algernon Swinburne experimented in versification, was a playwright and literary critic.

The meaning of the creativity of the Pre-Raphaelites

This art movement is famous and popular in the UK. But it was distinguished by refined aristocracy, retrospectism (an appeal to the art of the past) and contemplation, therefore its impact on the broad masses was insignificant. Although the Pre-Raphaelites turned to the past, they contributed to the establishment of the Art Nouveau style in the visual arts, they are even considered the predecessors of the Symbolists. Especially the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites influenced the work of the French Symbolists Verlaine and Mallarmé. It is believed that Burne-Jones painting strongly influenced the young Tolkien.
In Russia, the first exhibition of works by the Pre-Raphaelites was held on May 14-18, 2008 at the Tretyakov Gallery.

(1828-1882), painters William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), John Everett Millace (1829-1896), Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), James Collinson (1825-1881), William Rossetti (1829-1919), George Stevens (1817–1875), influenced by F.M.Brown and J. Ruskin, strove to revive the “naive religiosity” of medieval and early Renaissance art.

Senior Pre-Raphaelites.

Based on the ideas of art historian and critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), who proclaimed the principle of "loyalty to Nature", the artists united under the common idea of opposing cold academism (whose roots they saw in the art of the High Renaissance) "living faith" of the so-called. primitives of Italian art Trecento and Quattrocento. The Pre-Raphaelites turned not only to biblical subjects, but also to the works of classical poetry and literature, to the works of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), William Shakespeare (1564–1616), John Keats (1795–1821).

The Brotherhood's program included a romantic rejection of industrial society and bourgeois culture. Their art was supposed to contribute to the revival of spirituality in a person, moral purity and religiosity. Imitation of the artistic tradition of 15th century Italian art. caused a combination of scrupulous transfer of nature with stylization and complex symbolism.

The first period of the Brotherhood's existence includes paintings on biblical subjects: D.G. Rossetti Mary's maiden (1849), Carpentry workshop(1850), C.E. Collins The thoughts of a nun(1850-1851). The Pre-Raphaelites created a new type of female beauty in the visual arts - aloof, calm, mysterious, which would later be developed by Art Nouveau artists: J.E. Milles Bridesmaid(1851). Especially a lot on this topic worked D.G. Rossetti, portraying his beloved Elizabeth Siddal, after whose death he idealized her image, as did the medieval knights who glorified the beauty of a beautiful lady: D.G. Rossetti Beata Beatrix(1863-1864), J.E. Milles Marianne(1851), W. Morris Queen guinevere(1855). In the landscape, the artists were faithful to the accuracy of the transfer of nature: W.H. Hunt Sacrificial goat(1854), Lost Sheep(1855), J.E. Milles Ophelia (1852), Blind girl (1856), Autumn leaves(1856), Arthur Hughes (1832-1915) April love (1856).

Book graphics played an important role in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites (graphics in the magazine "Germ", which was edited by DG Rossetti, drawings by DG Rossetti for the publication of "The Music Teacher" by William Ellingham (1855).

After the successful first exhibition of the Pre-Raphaelites, held in May 1849, a storm of criticism soon fell upon them. Despite the subsequent recognition of their work, and the success of further exhibitions, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood disintegrates (according to one version in 1853, according to the other - in 1855). The aesthetic side of the Brotherhood's activities was inherited by the younger Pre-Raphaelites.

Younger Pre-Raphaelites.

In 1856, D. G. Rossetti meets with William Morris (1834-1896) and Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), and this meeting becomes the beginning of a new stage in the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the main idea of which is aestheticism, stylization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius. The painting of the Pre-Raphaelites began to develop towards the complication of planar ornamentation and mystical colors.

The ideas and practice of the Brotherhood largely influenced the development of symbolism in literature (W. Pater, O. Wilde). In turn, Walter Pater's idea of "art for art" was embodied in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Ruskin's desire to get pleasure from work, lost in modern industrial society, is reflected in paintings on the theme of labor: Henry Wallis (1830-1916) Stone crusher(1858), Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) Work(1852-1865), William Scott (1811-1890) Iron and coal (1860).

D.G. Rossetti remained faithful to the theme of the "beautiful lady": Blue silk dress(1866). In 1858 W. Morris creates his only easel work Queen Guinevere... In 1889, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Burne-Jones received the Legion of Honor for a painting King Kofetua and a young beggar woman.

In 1890 W. Morris founded the Kelmscott Press publishing house (existed until 1898), he designed all 66 books published by the publishing house, including fonts, initials, headpieces. Burne-Jones performed most of the illustrations for them.

Style grew out of late Pre-Raphaelism Ar nouveau which later became an international style (in Italy this art is called stile englese(English style), in Austria - Sezessionstil, in Germany - Jugendstil, in France - Ar nouveau, in Russia - style modern).

Typical for style Ar nouveau decorativeness, ornamentation, eroticism, exquisite line are also found among the late Pre-Raphaelites.

Arts and Crafts Movement.

The activity of W. Morris on the revival of English decorative and applied art was of a broader nature; it brought together many masters, incl. F.M. Brown, A. Hughes, arch. F. Webb, who sought to recreate, as opposed to machine-made manual production, to bring beauty into everyday life. The main idea of Morris was the belief that decorative arts are as important as fine arts, he strived for the unity of art and craft.

A new aspect of activity arose in the searches of the younger Pre-Raphaelites in 1857, when Rossetti received an order to paint the central debate room of the Oxford Union with scenes from The lives of King Arthur T. Mallory. This commission gave the opportunity to unite seven artists: Morris, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Arthur Hughes Spencer Stanhope, Wal Prince and Hungerford Pollen. The project was not successful, the mural was soon partially crumbled, but everyone liked the social aspect of the teamwork.

In 1860, the famous "Red House" (architect Philip Webb) in Bexleyhit, named after the color of the brick from which it was built, was completed. The house became the center of the literary and artistic circle and the first example of the combination of functional and aesthetic tasks that laid the foundation for the "Arts and Crafts Movement". W. Morris and his friends themselves painted the ceilings and walls of the house, created sketches of furniture, draperies, stained glass windows and tapestries. In 1861 the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. appeared. Seven partners participated in this venture: Morris, Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Webb, artist Ford Medox Brown, Peter Paul Marshall - engineer and amateur artist, Charles Faulkner - professor of mathematics at Oxford University. The first orders of the company were stained-glass windows, tapestries. In 1866 the firm decorated the Armory Hall and the Tapestry Hall at St James's Palace in London. In 1867, W. Morris, Burne-Jones and Webb decorated the Green Dining Room at the South Kensington Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum).

The first experiments in dyeing fabrics date back to 1875. In the same year, the company was reorganized, which received the name "Morris & K", due to the fact that Morris becomes its sole director. In 1878 Morris buys a 5-story house in Hammersmith, renames it Kelmscott House, installs looms there, and begins work on hand-woven tapestries and carpets. In 1881 the company moved to the "Merton" abbey, to an old factory, where they set up workshops for the production of stained glass windows, a dye shop, printing and weaving production. In the same year, the firm produces the decoration of the Throne Room of St. James's Palace.

The revival of crafts, a challenge to the traditional hierarchy of the arts, an emphasis on the social significance of the mode of production resulted in the founding in 1883 by W. Crane and L. Day of the Art Workers Guild, which becomes the center of the London Arts and Crafts Movement. In 1888, Walter Crane defined the goal of the Arts and Crafts Movement: "to transform artists into artisans and artisans into artists." The Society of Arts and Crafts was founded in 1888, and the first exhibition took place in the same year. At the second exhibition of the Society, W. Morris exhibited tapestries and dyed cotton fabrics.

The Arts and Crafts Movement created a model for the activities of subsequent art groups in the last quarter of the 19th century.

The art of the Pre-Raphaelites absorbed different styles and trends and influenced the artistic life not only of the 19th, but also of the 20th centuries.

October 1, 2014, 21:15

Who are the Pre-Raphaelites? These guys were English artists. In 1848, several artists who studied at the schools of the Royal Academy of Arts founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose main vow was: to depict the material world with the utmost reliability. Before them, the British art school, which gave the world many great painters, was in a certain stagnation - ceremonial portraiture, everyday sentimentalism, shallow landscape painting - that's all that England can boast of by the middle of the 19th century. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais decided to give the world a new art and opposed the seemingly unshakable canons of painting.

"The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" (English PreRaphaelite Brotherhood, from the Latin pgae - "before", "ahead", Italian Rafael - "Raphael" and English brotherhood - "brotherhood").

William Holman Hunt Self-Portrait

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

John Everett Millais Self-Portrait

They chose the term "Pre-Raphaelite" to emphasize the opposition to the style of the Italian High Renaissance artist Rafael Santi and to express interest in the work of the Italian masters of the Proto-Renaissance and the 15th century. In this era, they were attracted by "naive innocence," as well as true spirituality and deep religious feeling. Romantics in their essence, the Pre-Raphaelites, also discovered the world of images of medieval English literature, which became a constant source of inspiration for them. The word "brotherhood" conveyed the idea of a closed, secret community, similar to medieval monastic orders.

All members of the "Brotherhood" turned to the art of Gothic, where, instead of the usual chiaroscuro, the play of color planes reigned. Using bright colors, they portrayed nature in a realistic manner, but without slavishly following the rules of classical composition. They painted their sitters - ordinary people - with scrupulous precision, placing them in a natural environment. In order not to sin one iota against nature, the Pre-Raphaelites achieved absolute accuracy in every detail, for which they decided to paint nature only in the open air, that is, in the open air. This alone was a revolutionary step forward, since before them artists worked only in the studio.

Artists believed that it was impossible to portray strangers, so they always chose friends or relatives as models.

John Everett Millais "Ophelia" (1851 - 1852)

The film is based on a plot from Shakespeare's play "Hamlet". Millet created a landscape by the river spending 11 hours a day at his easel. This commitment to the work is explained by the views of Millet, who advocated the establishment of the principles of Pre-Raphaelism in art. One of the key ideas was that nature should be depicted as faithfully as possible, so even the flowers in the picture are written out with botanical precision. The artist painted the image of Ophelia in his studio after creating the landscape, which was unusual for those times. Landscapes were considered a less important part of the picture, so they were left for later. The model was nineteen-year-old Elizabeth Siddal, whom Millet forced to lie in a filled bath for several hours. Despite the fact that the bath was heated with lamps, it was winter, so Siddal caught a serious cold. Her father threatened the artist with a court if he did not take on the payment of medical services, and later Millet was sent a bill from doctors.

The work of the Pre-Raphaelites was closely associated with literature: with the works of the Italian Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri, the English poets William Shakespeare and John Milton, long-forgotten medieval legends and ballads with the noble worship of a beautiful lady, the selfless courage of knights and the wisdom of wizards.

John Everett Millais, Bridesmaid (1851)

John Everett Millais "Marianne" (1851)

Memories of Velazquez by John Everett Millais (1842)

The most subtle and original embodiment of these themes was given by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (named after Dante Alighieri).

Dante Gabriel Rossetti "Beloved" (1865-1866)

All the Pre-Raphaelites began to paint on white ground, getting pure transparent colors. This method was in many ways reminiscent of the technique of fresco painting. First, white paint was applied to the canvas and dried thoroughly. The artist used ink to paint the contours of the drawing. On top of the sketch, a thin layer of white was applied, almost without oil, and only then - a paint layer with scrupulous observance of the contours of the drawing. All this required an extraordinary lightness of the stroke so that the paints did not mix with the wet ground. Moreover, it was impossible to apply new strokes over the intended paints without losing the pristine purity of tones (usually in oil painting, a picture is painted fragment by fragment, and there is an opportunity to correct any mistake). Holman Hunt wrote this method, and Milles often resorted to it, but this technique required such thoroughness in work that even the most diligent artist could not create more than two paintings a year.

The technique chosen made it possible to achieve bright, fresh colors and proved to be so durable that their works have been preserved in their original form to this day.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti "Venus"

Dante Gabriel Rossetti "Lady Lilith" (1867)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti "Pia of Tolomei" (1868)

John William Waterhouse is an English artist whose work is attributed to the later stage of Pre-Raphaelism. Known for his female images, which he borrowed from mythology and literature.

Waterhouse "Northwind" (1903)

Waterhouse "Hylas and the Nymphs" (1869)

Waterhouse "Lady of Shallot" (1888)

Waterhouse "Sleeping Beauty" (1849 - 1917)

Waterhouse "Ophelia" (1910)

Works of like-minded people of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood:

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the richest artists of the 19th century. He had a great influence on the style of historical cinema (magnificent Hollywood productions of directors).

Lawrence Alma-Tadema "The Roses of Heliogabalus" (1888)

Lawrence Alma-Tadema "Spring" (1894)

Lawrence Alma-Tadema "Caracalla and Geta" (1909)

In 1853 the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood disintegrated. Apart from a young revolutionary romantic spirit and a fascination with the Middle Ages, there was little in common between these people, and of the first Pre-Raphaelites, only Holman Hunt remained faithful to the doctrine of Brotherhood. When Millet became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853, Rossetti declared the event the end of the Brotherhood. “The round table has now been disbanded,” concludes Rossetti. The rest of the members gradually leave. Holman Hunt, for example, went to the Middle East, Rossetti himself, instead of landscapes or religious topics, became interested in literature and created many works on Shakespeare and Dante.

For those who are interested in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites:

there is a BBC feature television series (Desperate Romantics 2009) in the channel's typical costume historical genre. There are no stars in the leading roles. Young rebels are played by young actors, charming looking in frock coats and romantic hair. The filmmakers tried to shoot not a solid biography of famous artists, but the story of the life and love of young geniuses, imbued with the same spirit of fiction and creative fiction that distinguished their own art. The six episodes of a single season included a large chunk of their lives - from Rossetti's meeting with the "ideal model" Elizabeth Siddal to William Morris's marriage to model Jane Burden. And also male friendship, the fight against reactionary society and new discoveries in painting.

Senior Pre-Raphaelites.

Younger Pre-Raphaelites.

Typical for style Ar nouveau decorativeness, ornamentation, eroticism, exquisite line are also found among the late Pre-Raphaelites.

Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Arts and Crafts Movement created a model for the activities of subsequent art groups in the last quarter of the 19th century.

The art of the Pre-Raphaelites absorbed different styles and trends and influenced the artistic life not only of the 19th, but also of the 20th centuries.

The name "Pre-Raphaelites" was supposed to denote a spiritual relationship with the Florentine artists of the early Renaissance, that is, the artists "before Raphael" and Michelangelo: Perugino, Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini.

The most prominent members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement were the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, painters William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane, John William Waterhouse.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The first stage in the development of Pre-Raphaelism was the emergence of the so-called "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood", which originally consisted of seven "brothers": J.E. Millet, Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his younger brother Michael Rossetti, Thomas Woolner and the painters Stevens and James Collinson.

D. G. Rossetti - Youth of the Virgin Mary, 1848-1849

The history of the Brotherhood begins in 1848, when the students of the Academy - Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had previously seen and admired Hunt's works, met at an exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. Hunt helps Rossetti complete Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848-49), which was exhibited in 1849, and he introduces Rossetti to John Everett Millais, a young genius who entered the Academy at the age of 11. and years. They not only became friends, but found that they shared each other's views on contemporary art: in particular, they believed that modern English painting was deadlocked and dying, and the best way to revive it would be to return to the sincerity and simplicity of early Italian art (that there are arts before Raphael, whom the Pre-Raphaelites considered the founder of academism).

Augustus Egga - Past and Present, 1837

This is how the idea of creating a secret society called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born - a society that is in opposition to the official artistic trends. From the very beginning, James Collinson (a student of the Academy and fiance of Christina Rossetti), sculptor and poet Thomas Woolner, a young nineteen-year-old artist and later critic Frederick Stevens and Rossetti's younger brother William Rossetti, who, in the footsteps of his older brother, entered an art school, were also invited to the group. but did not show a special vocation for art and, in the end, became a famous art critic and writer. Madox Brown was close to the German Nazarenes, so he, sharing the ideas of the Brotherhood, refused to join the group.

In Rossetti's painting The Youth of the Virgin Mary, three conventional letters P. R. B. (English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) first appear, the same initials marked Isabella Millet and Rienzi Hunt. Members of the Brotherhood also created their own magazine, called "Sprout", although it only existed from January to April 1850. It was edited by William Michael Rossetti (Dante Gabriel Rossetti's brother).

Pre-Raphaelites and Academism

Before the advent of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the development of British art was determined mainly by the activities of the Royal Academy of Arts. Like any other official institution, she was very jealous and cautious about innovations, preserving the traditions of academism. Hunt, Millet and Rossetti declared in the magazine "Rostok" that they did not want to portray people and nature as abstractly beautiful, and events - far from reality, and, finally, they were tired of the conventions of official, "exemplary" mythological, historical and religious works.

D.G. Rossetti - The Holy Grail, 1860

The Pre-Raphaelites abandoned academic principles of work and believed that everything should be written from nature. They chose friends or relatives as models. For example, in the painting The Youth of the Virgin Mary, Rossetti portrayed his mother and sister Christina, and looking at the painting Isabella, contemporaries recognized Millet's friends and acquaintances from the Brotherhood. He, during the creation of the painting "Ophelia", forced Elizabeth Siddal to lie in a filled bath for several hours. It was winter, so Siddal caught a serious cold and later sent Milla a 50 pound bill from the doctors.

D.E. Millet - Ophelia, 1852

Moreover, the Pre-Raphaelites changed the relationship between the artist and the model - they became equal partners. If the heroes of Reynolds' paintings are almost always dressed according to their social status, then Rossetti could draw a queen from a saleswoman, a goddess from a groom's daughter. Prostitute Fanny Cornforth posed for him for the painting "Lady Lilith".

D.G. Rossetti - Lady Lilith, 1868

Members of the Brotherhood have been irritated from the start by the influence on contemporary art of artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Wilkie and Benjamin Haydon. They even nicknamed Sir Joshua (President of the Academy of Arts) "Sir Slosh" (from the English slosh - "to spank in the mud") for his sloppy painting technique and style, they believed, completely borrowed from academic mannerism. The situation was aggravated by the fact that at that time, artists often used bitumen, and it makes the image unclear and dark. In contrast, the Pre-Raphaelites wanted to return to the high detail and deep colors of the painters of the Quattrocento era. They abandoned the "armchair" painting and began to paint in nature, and also made changes to the traditional painting technique. On a primed canvas, the Pre-Raphaelites outlined a composition, applied a layer of whitewash and removed the oil from it with blotting paper, and then painted over the whitewash with translucent paints. The technique chosen made it possible to achieve bright, fresh colors and turned out to be so durable that their works have been preserved in their original form to this day.

Fighting criticism

At first, the works of the Pre-Raphaelites were received quite warmly, but soon harsh criticism and ridicule fell on them. Millet's overly naturalistic painting "Christ in the Parental Home", exhibited in 1850, caused such a wave of indignation that Queen Victoria asked to be taken to Buckingham Palace for an independent examination.

D.E.Mille - Christ in the parental home, 1850

Public opinion was also attacked by Rossetti's painting "The Annunciation", made with deviations from the Christian canon. At an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1850, Rossetti, Hunt and Millet were never able to sell a single painting. In a review published in the weekly Athenaeum, critic Frank Stone wrote:

“Ignoring all the great things that were created by the old masters, this school, to which Rossetti belongs, weaves uncertain steps towards its early predecessors. This is archeology, devoid of any benefit and turned into doctrinairism. The people of this school claim to follow the truth and simplicity of nature. In fact, they slavishly imitate artistic ineptitude. "

The Principles of Brotherhood were criticized by many respected painters: the president of the Academy of Arts, Charles Eastlake, the Clique group of artists, led by Richard Dadd. As a result, James Collinson even renounced the Brotherhood, and his engagement to Christina Rossetti was broken off. Subsequently, the painter Walter Deverell took his place.

The situation was saved to some extent by John Ruskin, an influential art historian and art critic of England. Although he was only thirty-two years old in 1850, he was already the author of well-known works on art. In several articles published in The Times, Ruskin gave the works of the Pre-Raphaelites a flattering assessment, stressing that he personally did not know anyone from the Brotherhood. He proclaimed that their work could "form the basis of an art school more majestic than anything the world has known for the previous 300 years." In addition, Ruskin bought many of the paintings of Gabriel Rossetti, which supported him financially, and took Millet under his wing, in whom he immediately saw an outstanding talent.

John Ruskin and his influence

D. E. Millet - John Ruskin in a portrait, 1853-1854

The English critic John Ruskin put in order the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites regarding art, formalizing them into a logical system. Among his works, the most famous are Fiction: Fair and Foul, The Art of England, Modern Painters. He is also the author of the article "Pre-Raphaelitism", published in 1851.

“Contemporary artists,” wrote Ruskin in Contemporary Artists, “portray [nature] either too superficially or too embellished; they do not try to penetrate into [her] essence. " As an ideal Ruskin put forward medieval art, such masters of the Early Renaissance as Perugino, Fra Angelico, Giovanni Bellini, and encouraged artists to "paint pictures with a pure heart, focusing on nothing, choosing nothing and neglecting anything." Similarly, Madox Brown, who influenced the Pre-Raphaelites, wrote of his painting The Last of England (1855): “I tried to forget all existing artistic movements and reflect this scene as it should to look like". Madox Brown specially painted this picture on the coast in order to achieve the effect of "lighting from all directions", which happens at sea on cloudy days. The Pre-Raphaelite painting technique involved the elaboration of every detail.

M. Brown - Farewell to England, 1855

Ruskin also proclaimed "the principle of loyalty to Nature": "Is it not because we love our creations more than Him, we value colored glasses, not light clouds ... And, making fonts and erecting columns in honor of Him, .. we imagine that we will be forgiven for the shameful neglect of the hills and streams with which He has endowed our abode - the earth. " Thus, art was supposed to contribute to the revival of spirituality in a person, moral purity and religiosity, which also became the goal of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Ruskin owns a clear definition of the artistic goals of Pre-Raphaelism:

Easy to brush and paint herbs and plants with enough fidelity for the eye; anyone can achieve this after several years of labor. But to depict among herbs and plants the secrets of creation and combinations, with which nature speaks to our understanding, to convey the gentle bend and wavy shadow of the loosened earth, to find in everything that seems to be the smallest, the manifestation of the eternal divine new creation of beauty and greatness, to show this to the unthinking and blind - such is the appointment of the artist.

Ruskin's ideas deeply touched the Pre-Raphaelites, especially William Holman Hunt, who infected Millet and Rossetti with his enthusiasm. In 1847, Hunt wrote of Ruskin's book Contemporary Artists: "Like no other reader, I felt that the book was written especially for me." Defining his approach to work, Hunt also noted that it is important for him to proceed from the subject, "and not only because there is a charm of completeness of the subject, but in order to understand the principles of design that exist in Nature."

Decay

After the Pre-Raphaelitism received the support of Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites were recognized and loved, they were given the right to "citizenship" in art, they become fashionable and receive a more favorable reception at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and enjoy success at the World Exhibition in 1855 in Paris.

Arthur Hughes - April Love, 1855-1856

In addition to the already mentioned Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes (best known for the painting "April Love", 1855-1856), Henry Wallis, Robert Braithwaite Martineau, William Windus also became interested in the Pre-Raphaelite style. ) other.

D.E. Millet - Huguenot, 1852

However, the Brotherhood is disintegrating. Apart from a young revolutionary romantic spirit and a fascination with the Middle Ages, there was little in common between these people, and of the first Pre-Raphaelites, only Holman Hunt remained faithful to the doctrine of Brotherhood. When Millet became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853, Rossetti declared the event the end of the Brotherhood. “The round table has now been disbanded,” concludes Rossetti. The rest of the members gradually leave. Holman Hunt, for example, went to the Middle East, Rossetti himself, instead of landscapes or religious topics, became interested in literature and created many works on Shakespeare and Dante.

Attempts to revive the Brotherhood as the Hogarth Club, which existed from 1858 to 1861, failed.

Further development of Pre-Raphaelism

In 1856, Rossetti meets with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Burne-Jones was fascinated by Rossetti's painting The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice, and later he and Morris asked to be his apprentices. Burne-Jones spent full days at Rossetti's studio, with Morris joining in on weekends.

D.G. Rossetti - First Anniversary of Beatrice's Death, 1853

This is how a new stage in the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement begins, the main idea of which is aestheticism, stylization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius.] All these features are inherent in the work of Rossetti, who at first was the leader of the movement. As the artist Val Princep later wrote, Rossetti “was the planet around which we revolved. We even copied his manner of speaking. " However, Rossetti's health (including mental health) is deteriorating, and gradually Edward Burne-Jones, whose works are executed in the style of the early Pre-Raphaelites, takes over the leadership. He became immensely popular and influenced such painters as William Waterhouse, Bayam Shaw, Cadogan Cooper, and his influence is also noticeable in the works of Aubrey Beardsley and other illustrators of the 1890s. In 1889, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he received the Order of the Legion of Honor for the painting "King Cofetua and the Beggar."

Edward Burne-Jones - King of Cofetua and the Beggar Woman, 1884

Late Pre-Raphaelites also include painters such as Simeon Solomon and Evelyn de Morgan, as well as illustrators Henry Justice Ford and Evelyn Paul.

Henry Ford - Stepmother Turning Brothers into Swans, 1894

Evelyn Paul - Divine Comedy

Arts and Crafts

Pre-Raphaelitism at this time penetrates into all aspects of life: furniture, decorative art, architecture, interior decoration, book design, illustrations.

William Morris is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of 19th century decorative arts. He founded the Arts and Crafts Movement, whose main idea was to return to manual craftsmanship as an ideal of applied art, as well as to elevate the arts of printing, typing, and engraving to the rank of full-fledged arts. This movement, which was picked up by Walter Crane, Mackintosh, Nelson Dawson, Edwin Lutyens, Wright and others, subsequently manifested itself in English and American architecture, interior design, and landscape design.

Poetry

Most of the Pre-Raphaelites were engaged in poetry, but, according to many critics, it is of value precisely in the late period of the development of Pre-Raphaelism. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his sister Cristina Rossetti, George Meredith, William Morris and Algernon Swinburne have left significant marks on English literature, but Rossetti's greatest contribution, captured by the poems of the Italian Renaissance, and especially by Dante's writings, has made a significant contribution. The main lyrical achievement of Rossetti is the cycle of sonnets "The House of Life". Christina Rossetti was also a famous poet. Rossetti's beloved Elizabeth Siddal, whose works remained unpublished during his lifetime, was also engaged in poetry. William Morris was not only a recognized master of stained glass, but also led an active literary career, including writing many poems. His first collection, The Defense of Guinevere and Other Poems, was published in 1858, when the author was 24 years old.

Under the influence of the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites, the British decadence of the 1880s developed: Ernst Dawson, Lionel Johnson, Michael Field, Oscar Wilde. The romantic longing for the Middle Ages was reflected in Yeats's early work.

William Yates - The One Who Dreamed of a Fairy Land (1893)

He hesitated in the bazaar in Dromacher,
I considered myself a native in a foreign country,
Dreamed of love while the earth is behind him
The stone doors did not close;
But someone is a pile of fish not far away,
Like silver, scattered on the counter,
And those, with their cold heads raised,
They sang about a strange island
Where are the people above the embroidered wave
Under the woven canopy of motionless crowns
Love tames the running of times.
And he lost his happiness and peace.

He wandered for a long time in the sands in Lissadella
And in dreams I saw how he would heal,
Having acquired wealth and honor,
Until the bones decayed in the grave;
But from a random puddle, a worm
I sang to him with a swampy gray throat,
That somewhere in the distance in the sweet will
Everyone dances from ringing fun
Under the gold and silver of heaven;
When suddenly silence comes
The sun and the moon shine in the fruits.

He realized that he dreamed of the useless.

He thought at the well in Skanavino,
That the rage of the heart to the mocking light
Will go into rumor around for many years,
When the flesh drowns in the depths of the earth;
But then the weed sang to him about
What will become of his chosen people
Over the old wave, under the firmament,
Where gold is shattered by silver
And darkness envelops the world victoriously;
Sang to him about what a night
Lovers can help forever.
And his anger dissipated without a trace.

He slept under a smoky steep in Lugnagall;
It would seem that now, in the vale of sleep,
When the earth has taken its full toll,
He could forget about the homeless share.
But will the worms stop howling
Weaving rings around his bones,
That God lays his fingers on heaven,
To entwine with tender radiance
Dancers over a mindless wave?
Why dreams while the Lord's fervor
Haven't you singed happy love?
He did not find peace in the grave either.

The famous poet Algernon Swinburne, famous for his daring experiments in versification, was also a playwright and literary critic. The first drama The Queen Mother and Rosamond, written in 1860, was dedicated to Rossetti by Swinburne, with whom he had friendly relations. However, although Swinburne has declared his adherence to the principles of Pre-Raphaelism, he certainly goes beyond this direction.

Publishing activities

In 1890, William Morris organized the Kelmscott Press, where he published several books with Burne-Jones. This period is called the culmination of the life of William Morris. Drawing on the traditions of medieval scribes, Morris, like the English graphic artist William Blake, tried to find a unified style for book page, title page and binding. The best edition of Morris was The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer; the fields are adorned with climbing plants, the text is enlivened by miniature screensavers and ornamented capital letters. As Duncan Robinson wrote,

To the modern reader, accustomed to the simple and functional fonts of the 20th century, Kelmscott Press editions appear to be luxurious products of the Victorian era. Rich ornament, patterns in the form of leaves, illustrations on wood - all these become the most important examples of decorative art of the 19th century; everything is done by the hands of a person who has contributed more to this field than anyone else.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Ballads and narrative poems (Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Ballads and narrative poems). - L .: Kelmscott Press, 1893. Published by William Morris

Morris designed all 66 books published by the publisher, and Burne-Jones did most of the illustrations. The publishing house lasted until 1898 and had a strong influence on many illustrators of the late 19th century, in particular Aubrey Beardsley.

Aesthetic movement

At the end of the 50s, when the paths of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites diverge, there is a need for new aesthetic ideas and new theorists who form these ideas. Art historian and literary critic Walter Horatio Pater became such a theorist. Walter Pater believed that the main thing in art is the immediacy of individual perception, therefore art should cultivate every moment of experiencing life: “Art does not give us anything but the realization of the highest value of each passing moment and the preservation of all of them”. Largely through Pater, the ideas of "art for art", taken from Théophile Gaultier, Charles Baudelaire, are transformed into the concept of aestheticism, which is spreading among English artists and poets: Whistler, Swinburne, Rosseti, Wilde. Oscar Wilde also had a strong influence on the development of the aesthetic movement (including the later work of Rossetti), being personally acquainted with both Holman Hunt and Burne-Jones. He, like many of his peers, read the books of Pater and Ruskin, and Wilde's aestheticism largely grew out of Pre-Raphaelism, which carried a charge of sharp criticism of modern society from the standpoint of beauty. Oscar Wilde wrote that “aesthetics is above criticism”, which considers art to be the highest reality, and life as a kind of fiction: “I write because writing for me is the highest artistic pleasure. If my work is liked by a select few, I am happy about it. If not, I am not upset. " The Pre-Raphaelites were also fond of Keats's poetry and fully accepted his aesthetic formula that "beauty is the only truth."

Plots

W. H. Hunt - Awakened Shyness, 1853

At first, the Pre-Raphaelites preferred gospel stories, and they avoided church painting in painting and interpreted the Gospel symbolically, emphasizing not the historical fidelity of the gospel episodes depicted, but their inner philosophical meaning. So, for example, in Hunt's "Light of the World" in the form of the Savior with a bright lamp in his hands, the mysterious divine light of faith is depicted, striving to penetrate into closed human hearts, like Christ knocking at the door of a human dwelling.

W.H. Hunt - Beacon of Peace, 1854

The Pre-Raphaelites draw attention to the topic of social inequality in the Victorian era, emigration (works of Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes), the humiliated position of women (Rossetti), Holman Hunt even touched on the topic of prostitution in his painting "The Awakening Conscience" (English The Awakening Conscience, 1853 .). In the picture we see a fallen woman who suddenly realized that she was sinning, and, forgetting about her lover, frees herself from his embrace, as if having heard some kind of call through an open window. The man does not understand her spiritual impulses and continues to play the piano. Here the Pre-Raphaelites were not pioneers, they were anticipated by Richard Redgrave with his famous painting "The Governess" (1844).

R. Redgrave - The Governess, 1844

And later, in the 40s, Redgrave created many similar works devoted to the exploitation of women.

D.G. Rossetti - Proserpine, 1874

The Pre-Raphaelites also dealt with historical themes, achieving the greatest accuracy in depicting factual details; turned to the works of classical poetry and literature, to the works of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, John Keats. They idealized the Middle Ages, loved medieval romance and mysticism.

Female images

The Pre-Raphaelites created a new type of female beauty in the visual arts - aloof, calm, mysterious, which would later be developed by Art Nouveau artists. The woman on the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites is a medieval image of ideal beauty and femininity, she is admired and worshiped. This is especially noticeable in Rossetti, who admired beauty and mystery, as well as in Arthur Hughes, Millet, Burne-Jones. A mystical, destructive beauty, la femme fatale, later found expression in William Waterhouse. In this regard, the painting "The Lady of Challotte" (1888) can be called significant, which still remains one of the most popular exhibits at the Tate Gallery. It is based on a poem by Alfred Tennyson. Many painters (Holman Hunt, Rossetti) illustrated works by Tennyson, in particular, Lady Shalotte. The story tells about a girl who must remain in a tower, isolated from the outside world, and at the very moment when she decides to escape, she signs her own death warrant.

W. Waterhouse - Lady of Shalotte, 1888

The image of tragic love was attractive to the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers: in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more than fifty paintings were created on the theme of Lady Shalotte, and the title of the poem turned into a phraseological unit. The Pre-Raphaelites were attracted, in particular, by such themes as spiritual purity and tragic love, unrequited love, an unattainable girl, a woman dying for love, marked by shame or curse, as well as a dead woman of extraordinary beauty.

W. Waterhouse - Ophelia, 1894

The Victorian concept of femininity has been revised. For example, in "Ophelia" by Arthur Hughes or the series of paintings "Past and Present" (English Past and Present, 1837-1860) by Augustus Egg, a woman is shown as a person capable of experiencing sexual desire and passion, often leading to untimely death. Augustus Egg created a series of works showing how the family hearth is destroyed after the mother's adultery was discovered. In the first picture, a woman lies on the floor, her face buried in the carpet, in a pose of complete despair, and the bracelets on her arms resemble handcuffs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti uses the figure of Proserpine from ancient Greek and Roman mythology: a young woman stolen by Pluto into the underworld and desperate to return to earth. She eats only a few pomegranate seeds, but a small piece of food is enough for a person to remain in the underworld forever. Proserpina Rossetti is not just a beautiful woman with a thoughtful look. She is very feminine and sensual, and the pomegranate in her hands is a symbol of passion and temptation to which she succumbed.

W. Waterhouse - "Shadows Pursue Me," Said The Lady of Shalotte, 1911

One of the main themes in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites is a seduced woman, destroyed by unrequited love, betrayed by her beloved, a victim of tragic love. In most of the paintings, there is either explicitly or implicitly a man responsible for the woman's downfall. An example is Hunt's Awakened Shyness or Millet's Mariana.

D.E. Millet - Mariana, 1851

A similar theme can be traced in poetry: in The Defense of Guenevere by William Morris, in Christina Rossetti's poem Light Love (1856), in Rossetti's Jenny (1870), where a fallen woman is shown, a prostitute who is completely unconcerned about her position and even enjoys sexual freedom.

Landscape

W.H. Hunt - English Shores, 1852

Holman Hunt, Millais, Madox Brown designed the landscape. The painters William Dyce, Thomas Saddon, John Brett also enjoyed some fame. The landscape painters of this school are known in particular for the depiction of clouds, inherited from their famous predecessor, William Turner. They tried to paint the landscape with maximum accuracy. Hunt expressed his thoughts this way: "I want to paint a landscape ... depicting every detail I can see." And about Millet's painting "Autumn Leaves" Ruskin said: "For the first time twilight is depicted so perfectly."

D.E. Millet - Autumn Leaves, 1856

Painters made meticulous etudes of tones from nature, reproducing them as brightly and distinctly as possible. This microscopic work required a lot of patience and work, in their letters or diaries the Pre-Raphaelites complained about the need to stand for hours under the hot sun, rain, wind in order to draw, at times, a very small segment of the picture. For these reasons, the Pre-Raphaelite landscape did not become widespread, and then impressionism came to replace it.

Lifestyle

Pre-Raphaelitism is a cultural style that penetrated the life of its creators and, to some extent, determined this life. The Pre-Raphaelites lived in an environment they created and made such an environment extremely fashionable. As Andrea Rose notes in her book, at the end of the 19th century, “fidelity to nature gives way to fidelity to image. The image becomes recognizable and therefore quite ready for the market. "

William Morris - Queen Ginevra, 1858

American writer Henry James, in a letter dated March 1969, told his sister Alice about his visit to the Morris.

“Yesterday, my dear sister,” writes James, “was a kind of apotheosis for me, as I spent most of that day at the home of Mr. W. Morris, the poet. Morris lives in the same house where he opened his shop, in Bloomsbury ... You see, poetry for Morris is a secondary occupation. First of all, he is a manufacturer of stained glass windows, faience tiles, medieval tapestries and church sewing - in general, everything Pre-Raphaelite, ancient, unusual and, I must add, incomparable. Of course, all of this is done on a modest scale and can be done at home. The things he does are extraordinarily graceful, precious and expensive (they outperform the greatest luxury items), but because his factory cannot be too important. But everything he has created is delightful and excellent ... he is also helped by his wife and little daughters. "

Henry James goes on to describe William Morris' wife, Jane Morris (née Jane Burden), who later became Rossetti's lover and model, and who can always be found in the paintings of this painter:

“Oh, my dear, what kind of woman is this! She is beautiful in everything. Imagine a tall, thin woman, in a long dress made of fabric the color of muted purple, from natural fabric to the last lace, with a shock of curly black hair falling in large waves along the temples, a small and pale face, large dark manholes, deep and completely Swinburne, with thick black curved eyebrows ... A high open neck in pearls, and in the end - perfection itself. On the wall hung an almost life-size portrait of her by Rossetti, so strange and unreal that if you saw it, you would take it for a painful vision, but extraordinary similarity and fidelity to features. After dinner ... Morris read us one of his unpublished poems ... and his wife, suffering from a toothache, was resting on the sofa, with a handkerchief over her face. It seemed to me that there was something fantastic and remote from our real life in this scene: Morris, reading the legend of miracles and horrors in a smooth antique size (this was the story of Bellerophon), around us picturesque second-hand apartment furniture (each item is an example of something or), and, in the corner, this gloomy woman, silent and medieval with her medieval toothache ”.

The Pre-Raphaelites were surrounded by women of different social status, lovers, models. One journalist writes about them like this: "... women without crinolines, with flowing hair ... unusual, like a feverish dream, in which magnificent and fantastic images slowly move."

Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived in a sophisticated and bohemian atmosphere, and his eccentric image itself became part of the Pre-Raphaelite legend: Rossetti lived with a wide variety of people, including the poet Algernon Swinburne, the writer George Meredith. Models replaced one another, some of them became Rossetti's mistresses, the vulgar and avaricious Fanny Cornforth is especially known. Rossetti's house was full of antiques, antique furniture, Chinese porcelain, and other knickknacks that he bought from junk shops. In the garden there were owls, wombats, kangaroos, parrots, peacocks, at one time there even lived a bull, whose eyes resembled those of Rossetti's eyes of his beloved Jane Morris.

The meaning of pre-Raphaelitism

Pre-Raphaelitism as an art movement is widely known and popular in Great Britain. It is also called the first British movement to achieve world fame, however, among researchers, the value is assessed in different ways: from a revolution in art to pure innovation in painting technique. There is an opinion that the movement began with an attempt to renew painting, and later had a great influence on the development of literature and the entire English culture in general. According to the Literary Encyclopedia, in view of their refined aristocracy, retrospectism and contemplation, their work had little effect on the broad masses.

Despite the apparent appeal to the past, the Pre-Raphaelites contributed to the establishment of the Art Nouveau style in the visual arts, moreover, they are considered the predecessors of the Symbolists, sometimes even identifying both. For example, that the exhibition "Symbolism in Europe", which moved from November 1975 to July 1976 from Rotterdam through Brussels and Baden-Baden to Paris, took as the initial date 1848 - the year of the foundation of the Brotherhood. Pre-Raphaelite poetry left its mark on the French symbolists Verlaine and Mallarmé, and painting on artists such as Aubrey Beardsley, Waterhouse, and lesser known artists such as Edward Hughes or Calderon. Some even note the influence of Pre-Raphaelite painting on English hippies, and Burne-Jones on the young Tolkien. Interestingly, in his youth, Tolkien, together with his friends, organized a semi-secret society "Tea Club", compared them with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

Some works of the Pre-Raphaelites