The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
A brief sketch

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (the PRB) was formed in 1848 by a small group of artists, writers and critics.  They found common cause in their belief that art had lost its way since the passing of great figures such as Michelangelo and Raphael.

 

The three founding artists were John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Holman Hunt.  Others who followed their principles included Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes, Marie Spartali Stillman, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and John William Waterhouse.

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The PRB believed that the decline in artistic standards was being perpetuated by academic schools of painting. They felt that art had become insipid and static, following formulae rather than an artistic spirit. They aimed to re-introduce strong colours to their work, and the precise detail associated with artists such as da Vinci.

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Their great advocate was the critic John Ruskin, who defended them against the many voices which expressed dismay at their work. After a fairly explosive start - Charles Dickens declared that the person of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in one of Millais' paintings could have been 'anyone's housemaid' - the group became looser.

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The stories of their marriages, models and private lives have become almost as legendary as their artworks.

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Although the PRB had no formal existence after the mid 1850s, the term 'pre-raphaelite' continued to be used for some time and many later artists were influenced by them.

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