The history of the emergence of the Pre-Raphaelite group is brief. Pre-Raphaelite painting

The name "Pre-Raphaelites" was supposed to mean spiritual kinship with Florentine artists of the early Renaissance, that is, 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, the painters William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane, and John William Waterhouse.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

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

The history of the Brotherhood begins in 1848, when Academy students Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had previously seen and admired Hunt’s work, met at an exhibition at 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 discovered that they shared each other's views on modern Art: in particular, they believed that modern English painting had reached a dead end and was dying, and in the best possible way to revive it will be a return to the sincerity and simplicity of early Italian art (that is, art before Raphael, whom the Pre-Raphaelites considered the founder of academicism).

Augustus Egga - Past and Present, 1837

In Rossetti’s painting “The Youth of the Virgin Mary,” the three conventional letters P. R. B. (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) appear for the first time; the same initials marked “Isabella” by Millet and “Rienzi” by Hunt. Members of the Brotherhood also created their own magazine, called Rostock, although it only existed from January to April 1850. Its editor was William Michael Rossetti (brother of Dante Gabriel Rossetti).

Pre-Raphaelites and Academicism

D. G. Rossetti - The Holy Grail, 1860

D. E. Millet - Ophelia, 1852

D. G. Rossetti - Lady Lilith, 1868

Members of the Brotherhood were from the outset irritated by the influence on modern 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 - “slap in the mud”) for his sloppy painting technique and style, as 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 cloudy and dark. In contrast, the Pre-Raphaelites wanted to return to the high detail and deep colors of the Quattrocento era painters. They abandoned “cabinet” painting and began to paint in nature, and also made changes to the traditional painting technique. The Pre-Raphaelites outlined a composition on a primed canvas, applied a layer of whitewash and removed the oil from it with blotting paper, and then wrote on top of the whitewash with translucent paints. The chosen technique allowed them to achieve bright, fresh tones and turned out to be so durable that their works have been preserved in their original form to this day.

Dealing with criticism

At first, the work of the Pre-Raphaelites was received quite warmly, but soon severe criticism and ridicule fell. Millet's overly naturalistic painting "Christ in the Parental House", exhibited in 1850, caused such a wave of indignation that Queen Victoria asked to be taken to Buckingham Palace for independent inspection.

D. E. Millet - Christ in his parents' house, 1850

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

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

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

John Ruskin and his influence

D. E. Millais - John Ruskin in portrait, 1853-1854.

“Today’s artists,” wrote Ruskin in Modern Artists, “depict [nature] either too superficially or too embellished; they do not try to penetrate into [its] 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 with a pure heart, not focusing on anything, choosing nothing and neglecting nothing.” Similarly, Madox Brown, who influenced the Pre-Raphaelites, wrote of his painting The Last of England (1855): “I have tried to forget all existing artistic movements and to reflect this scene as it should have been.” to look like". Madox Brown specifically painted this picture on the coast in order to achieve the effect of “lighting from all sides” that happens at sea on cloudy days. The Pre-Raphaelite painting technique involved the elaboration of every detail.

M. Brown - Farewell to England, 1855

Ruskin has a clear definition of the artistic goals of Pre-Raphaelitism:

It is easy to control the brush and paint herbs and plants with enough fidelity to the eye; Anyone can achieve this after several years of work. But to depict among the herbs and plants the secrets of creation and combinations with which nature speaks to our understanding, to convey the gentle curve and wavy shadow of the loosened earth, to find in everything that seems the smallest, a manifestation of the eternal divine new creation of beauty and greatness, to show this to the unthinking and unseeing - such is artist's appointment.

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

Decay

Arthur Hughes - April Love, 1855-1856.

D.E. Millet - Huguenot, 1852

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

Further development of Pre-Raphaelitism

D. G. Rossetti - First anniversary of the death of Beatrice, 1853

Edward Burne-Jones - King Cophetua and the Beggar Woman, 1884

Henry Ford - Stepmother Turning Brothers into Swans, 1894

Evelyn Paul - The Divine Comedy

"Arts and Crafts"

William Morris is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the decorative arts of the 19th century. He founded the Arts and Crafts Movement, the main idea of ​​which was a return to manual craftsmanship as an ideal applied arts, as well as the elevation to the rank of full-fledged arts of printing, typesetting, and engraving. This movement, which was taken 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

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

William Yeats - He Who Dreamed magical land (1893)

He lingered at the market in Dromacher,
I considered myself family in a foreign country,
Dreamed of loving while the earth was behind him
She didn’t close the stone doors;
But someone is a pile of fish not far away,
Like silver, scattered on the counter,
And those, raising their cold heads,
They sang about an alien island,
Where are the people above the embroidered wave
Under the woven canopy of motionless crowns
Love tames the rush of time.
And he lost his happiness and peace.

He walked for a long time through the sands in Lissadell
And in my dreams I saw how it would heal,
Having gained wealth and honor,
Until the bones decay 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 freedom
Everyone dances from the ringing joy
Under the gold and silver of heaven;
When suddenly there is silence,
The sun and moon shine in the fruits.

He realized that he was dreaming about something useless.

He thought at the well in Scanavina,
What is the rage of the heart at the mocking light
Will become a rumor around the area for many years,
When the flesh drowns in the earthly abyss;
But then the weed sang to him that
What will become of his chosen people?
Above the old wave, under the firmament,
Where gold is torn apart by silver
And darkness envelops the world victoriously;
Sang to him about what night
It can help lovers forever.
And his anger dissipated without a trace.

He slept under a smoky bluff at Lugnagall;
It would seem that now, in the vale of sleep,
When the earth took its toll,
He could forget about his homeless lot.
But will the worms stop howling?
Weaving rings around his bones,
That God lays his fingers on the sky,
To envelop with a gentle radiance
Dancers above a thoughtless wave?
What's the point of dreams while the Lord is in the heat?
Didn't you burn happy love?
He did not find peace even in the grave.

Publishing activities

To the modern reader, accustomed to the simple and functional typefaces of the 20th century, Kelmscott Press editions seem like luxurious creations of the Victorian era. Rich ornamentation, patterns in the form of leaves, illustrations on wood - all this became the most important examples of decorative art of the 19th century; all made by the hands of a man who has contributed more to this field than anyone else.

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

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

Aesthetic movement

Subjects

W. H. Hunt - Prudence Awakened, 1853

W. H. Hunt - Light of the World, 1854

R. Redgrave - Governess, 1844

D. G. Rossetti - Proserpina, 1874

The Pre-Raphaelites created fine arts a new type of female beauty - detached, calm, mysterious, which would later be developed by Art Nouveau artists. The woman in the Pre-Raphaelite paintings 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, Millais, and Burne-Jones. Mystical, destructive beauty, la femme fatale, later found expression in William Waterhouse. In this regard, the painting “The Lady of Shalott” (1888), which still remains one of the most popular exhibits at the Tate Gallery, can be called iconic. It is based on a poem by Alfred Tennyson. Many painters (Holman Hunt, Rossetti) illustrated Tennyson’s works, in particular “The Lady of Shalott”. The story tells of a girl who must remain in a tower, isolated from the outside world, and at the very moment she decides to escape, she signs her own death warrant.

W. Waterhouse - Lady of Shalott, 1888

W. Waterhouse - Ophelia, 1894

W. Waterhouse - “I am haunted by shadows,” said the Lady of Shalott, 1911

D.E. Millet - Mariana, 1851

Scenery

W. H. Hunt - English Shores, 1852

D.E. Millet - Autumn Leaves, 1856

Lifestyle

William Morris - Queen Ginevra, 1858

“Yesterday, my dear sister,” writes James, “was a kind of apotheosis for me, for I spent the greater part of it at the house of Mr. W. Morris, the poet. Morris lives in the same house where he opened his shop, in Bloomsbury... You see, poetry is a secondary occupation for Morris. First of all, he is a manufacturer of stained glass, faience tiles, medieval tapestries and church embroidery - in general, everything Pre-Raphaelite, antique, unusual and, I must add, incomparable. Of course, all this is done on a modest scale and can be done at home. The things he makes are extraordinarily elegant, precious and expensive (they surpass the price of the greatest luxury items), and because his factory cannot have too much of great importance. But everything he has created is amazing and excellent... he also has the help of his wife and little daughters.”

Henry James goes on to describe William Morris's wife, Jane Morris (nee Jane Burden), who later became Rossetti's lover and model and can often be seen in the artist's paintings:

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

The Pre-Raphaelites were surrounded by women of different social status, lovers, and models. One journalist writes about them this way: “... women without crinolines, with flowing hair... unusual, like a fever 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 variety of people, including the poet Algernon Swinburne, the writer George Meredith. Models succeeded one another, some of them became Rossetti's mistresses; the vulgar and stingy Fanny Cornforth was especially famous. Rossetti's house was full of antiques, antique furniture, Chinese porcelain and other trinkets that he bought in junk shops. The garden was home to owls, wombats, kangaroos, parrots, peacocks, and at one time there even lived a bull whose eyes reminded Rossetti of the eyes of his beloved Jane Morris.

The meaning of Pre-Raphaelitism

Despite the apparent focus on the past, the Pre-Raphaelites contributed to the establishment of the Art Nouveau style in the fine 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 1848 as the starting date - the year of the founding 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 ones such as Edward Hughes or Calderon. Some even point to the influence of Pre-Raphaelite painting on English hippies, and Burne-Jones on the young Tolkien. Interestingly, in his youth, Tolkien, who together with his friends organized a semi-secret society called the Tea Club, compared them to the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

Some Pre-Raphaelitist works

D.E. Millet - Cherry Ripe, 1879

D.E. Millet - Lorenzo and Isabella, 1849

D.E. Millet - The North-West Passage, 1874

D.E. Millet - Black Brunswick Hussar, 1860

D. G. Rossetti - Beata Beatrix, 1864-1870

D. G. Rossetti - Annunciation, 1850

W. Waterhouse - Gilias and Nymphs, 1896

W.H. Hunt - Finding the Savior in the Temple, 1860

W.H. Hunt - Hired Shepherd, 1851

It is not surprising that the very idea of ​​​​breaking with academicism in painting arose among students, moreover, among students of the British Royal Academy of Arts. The discussion initially arose between three students: Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, and John Evertt Millais. Young and far from mediocre artists reflected on the present and future of painting, shared reform plans and eventually came to the creation of the secret “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.” It was in opposition to the official line of the Academy and proclaimed a return to the ideals of the era “before Raphael.” Soon the secret society already included seven artists.

The Brotherhood had its own magazine, Rostock, and Dante Rossetti, for example, signed some paintings with the initials P.R.B, noting his membership in this group. The first postulates of the society were also published in the magazine. Over time, the ideas of the Brotherhood took shape into a single system, which helped develop Pre-Raphaelism in culture.

After several years of existence, the Brotherhood disbanded, and each of its members went their own way. But even after the destruction of the organization, the theses and thoughts of the Pre-Raphaelites excited the public. Their ideas penetrated into many areas of culture: design, illustration, decorative arts and literature.

Provisions of the theory

Initially, the Pre-Raphaelites published theses on reform in art in their own journal. They called for the return of artistic art to reality and naturalness, and also heralded the abandonment of mythological and historical subjects worn out to holes. Beauty should not be abstract, alien to the naturalness of man.

It is logical that one of the main postulates of the direction was working from life. Often in the paintings of artists you can find their relatives or friends. Historians of painting meticulously examine their canvases and find interesting parallels and coincidences.

The Brotherhood also turned to painting techniques. Their task was to move away from the dark tones provided by the bitumen used by artists at that time. They wanted a pure painterly image, high precision in detail and rich colors characteristic of the Quattrocento era. To achieve this effect, they applied a layer of white to the primed canvas, cleaned the canvas of oil, and then worked with translucent paints on top. The technique made it possible to achieve purity of the drawing and extraordinary lightness at that time.

The excessive naturalism and novelty of the approach aroused not only interest, but also rejection in society. However, the authoritative critic John Ruskin became interested in Pre-Raphaelite painting. He formalized the postulates of the “Brotherhood” into a logical and harmonious artistic system, and revealed the Pre-Raphaelites to the world, helped to understand their motives and art.

Ruskin substantiated several principles of this artistic movement and supported them financially. Maximum detail was justified by the artists’ attention to the very essence of things, and their reluctance to be satisfied with generally accepted ideas about nature and man. The Pre-Raphaelites were so attentive to detail that in their desire to paint from life they came to the point of awe at the smallest details, spending an incredible amount of time on fresh air and in working with models.

Another principle highlighted by Ruskin is fidelity to nature, combined with fidelity to spiritual principles. In every branch and leaf, in every drop of water, the artists saw the creation of God, and therefore treated everything with awe and reverence. The return to spirituality was seen as a new birth and a turn to the religiosity of the early Renaissance.

The critic's support influenced the position of the Pre-Raphaelites in society; they became more popular and even became fashionable.

Artists and their creations

John Evert Millais, Ophelia
Millet was one of the founders of the movement. Extremely talented, he became one of the youngest applicants to the Royal Academy of Arts. The painting was created by Millet during many hours of plein air in the fresh air. An artist could spend up to 11 hours a day working! The artist directed all his attention to creating the landscape, so the figure of the girl was the final detail of the canvas. Millais was so obsessed with detail that he forced model Elizabeth Siddal to spend hours in a bathtub filled to the brim. The girl caught a cold, and the story became one of the legends of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Lady Lilith"
The artist spent 2 years painting the first version of the painting, and later he rewrote the girl’s face with a new model. The painting forms a diptych with the work “Sibyl Palmifera”. What is noteworthy is that Rossetti painted sonnets of his own composition on the frames. "Lady Lilith" is an ode to beauty. The spirit of symbolism is strong in the picture: white roses, poppies, the contents of the dressing table. Historians call this work feminist: great power and beauty are concentrated in women.

Evelyn de Morgan, "Medea"
The artist turns to ancient Greek myths and takes one of the most dramatic images in literature. At the center of the work is the red-haired woman beloved by the Pre-Raphaelites.

Hunt William Holman, “The Hired Shepherd” Holman’s brush was by no means pastoral. In the best traditions of “Brotherhood,” the picture simply glows with bright colors. All plans are carefully worked out, the work is interesting to look at. Historians believe that Holman put into the painting his bewilderment at the contemporary religious debate and the role of priests in it.

Ford Murdoch Brown, Farewell to England
At the center of the work is an absolutely earthly theme - emigration, which was voiced with renewed vigor in contemporary artist Britain. In the center is a family looking for a new home. In the picture you can find the artist’s daughter and wife, he painted from life, paying tribute to the ideas of the Pre-Raphaelites. Although Brown was never a member of the Brotherhood, he supported its ideals, which was reflected in this work.

Britain is proud of its Pre-Raphaelite movement, because it is one of the brightest artistic directions, which originated in England. Despite the fact that the works of these artists were criticized at first, they found their place in world culture and radically influenced both modern art and popular culture.

Some are proud that they can pronounce the word “Pre-Raphaelites.” And you will be proud to know why Dante Rossetti dug up his wife’s coffin and Nick Cave drowned Kylie Minogue.

Maria Mikulina

"Lady Lilith" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (1866–1873)

The National Gallery used its main exhibition hall for the Summer Exhibition every year. In 1850 it was, as always, packed. Excited students of the Royal Academy of Arts trembled next to their paintings and caught the ingratiating glances of their teachers. About an hour after the opening of the exhibition, the bulk of visitors concentrated on one of the paintings.

"Christ in the Parental House" by John Everett Millais, 1850

A certain cunning student with a newspaper in his hands read out excerpts from a review by the famous art lover Charles Dickens to the cheers of his friends. After the very first lines, it became clear that the review was devastating.

Charles Dickens:

« So, in front of you is a carpenter's workshop. In the foreground of this workshop stands a hideous red-haired youth with a crooked neck, who apparently injured his hand while playing with another youth. Little Jesus is comforted by a woman kneeling in front of him - this turns out to be Mary? Yes, this creepy person belongs in the trashiest French cabaret or the last English tavern! »

The crowd greeted each quote from the writer with approving chuckles.

Next to the painting stood its author, John Everett Millais. The 21-year-old man with carefully styled curls looked like he was about to cry. He, the youngest and most gifted student of the Royal Academy of Arts, had never had to be a victim of such cruel criticism. On the other hand, he had never written anything like this before. Up to this point, all of John Millais's work conformed to the tenets of Victorian painting.

Meanwhile, the student did not let up and continued to quote the writer:
« From this picture alone we can judge the newborn Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as a whole. So, get ready to forget everything graceful, sacred, tender and inspiring. In return, the Pre-Raphaelites offer us everything that is most odious and repulsive in painting. »

Before the Pre-Raphaelites

TO mid-19th century, English painting finally slipped into emotion and moralizing. The paintings were populated by plump children with crimson blushes and dogs with shiny fur.

Actually, it was this falsehood that the Pre-Raphaelites decided to fight, who believed that art had deteriorated with the advent of Raphael Santi, in whom even Christ had difficulty ascending into the sky - he was so well-fed.

“Wait a minute, let me pass, step aside!” - came from the crowd, and the next second two young men appeared next to Milles: a short, dark-skinned youth with dark curls and a powerful bearded man, looking at the crowd with the arrogance characteristic of youth. Dante Gabriel Rossetti - that was the name of the curly-haired young man - passionately objected to the student with the newspaper:
“The time will come when you will be proud that you had the honor of standing next to this great man!” “The young man pointed his finger at Milles, whose blush had already given way to threatening pallor and perspiration.
“Oh, I don’t doubt it at all, Gabriel,” the student answered with a condescending smile. – I sometimes have nightmares. I think you just described one of the coming ones.

The student's answer was drowned in the laughter of those around him. A minute later the crowd dispersed. Milles spoke first.
- Maybe Dickens is right? In the end, we are going against all the canons...
- That's the point! – Rossetti immediately flared up. - People are blind! Give them a swollen Christ lying in a cradle woven from heavenly flowers. Cheer up, Baby. Let me list the principles of brotherhood.
“You need to have brilliant ideas,” Milles muttered, staring at a rural pastoral with sheep hanging nearby. – You need to carefully study nature in order to be able to depict it. It is necessary to take into account everything that was serious in art and discard everything that was caricatured. And, most importantly, create true works of art.
“I think after today’s incident we need to expand the code by one point,” Hunt added grimly. – Keep Dickens away from our paintings.
- Shh, everyone, be quiet, Ruskin is coming! – Rossetti nervously adjusted his faded scarf.

John Ruskin was one of the most respected art critics. Although not much older than the Pre-Raphaelites, he nevertheless already managed to create a reputation for himself and gain fame. Usually one of his words was enough to destroy the artist, and to elevate him. Now the Pre-Raphaelites received his attention.

- Hmm... Hmm... - The first sounds that the critic made after several minutes of studying the painting did not mean anything to the young artists. However, like the expression on his face, completely impenetrable. The first, as usual, was Rossetti.
- Mr. Ruskin, pay attention to the blood of the wounded Christ. Very natural, isn't it? This is the artist’s real blood, so he wanted to achieve authenticity.

Silence in response. The critic examined the painting for a few more minutes. Then he turned around and moved towards the door. Milles, who had found hope, completely sank. And then Ruskin turned and said loudly:
– This is a completely new direction in painting, pure and truthful. Perhaps it will determine the character of English art for the next three centuries. Perhaps this is what I will write in the Times.

As soon as Ruskin walked out of the gallery with a leisurely gait, its arches were filled with exclamations of jubilant artists.
“I told you, Baby, he’ll like it!” We have Ruskin! – Gabriel, lost in delight, jumped on the struggling Hunt. Milles couldn't stop smiling.
- Let's go celebrate immediately! - In a split second, Rossetti changed his facial expression from jubilant to pitiful: - Only I’m broke again. Would you like me to buy you a glass of gin?..

Happy friends left the gallery. A new, better life awaited them, which this moment symbolized by the tavern around the corner.

Where do the Pre-Raphaelites' legs grow from?

The birth of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood caused discontent in the artistic community. However, what else can cause young people who openly declare to their teachers that painting is in the deepest crisis.

All members of the tiny fraternity - usually consisting of three to seven people - pledged to sign their work with the acronym PRB. The London public immediately began to practice their wit, deciphering it. Most popular options There were interpretations of “Please Ring the Bell” and “Penis Rather Better”. The second option was inspired by the excessive lifestyle of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The main inspirer of the brotherhood. The son of an Italian professor who traded his sunny homeland for the foggy shores of England for political reasons, Gabriel was brought up surrounded by poor intellectuals. From morning to late evening, bold conversations about politics and art were held in Rossetti’s house - the boy could only absorb these revolutionary sentiments.

Gabriel owed his first name to his father’s passion for the poetry of Dante Alighieri. The name did its job: as soon as the boy learned to hold a pen in his hand, he began to write poetry. But later it became obvious that his main hobby was painting, as well as women, alcohol and fiery speeches. Rossetti had the useful ability to persuade anyone to do anything. So he acquired associates.

William Holman Hunt
A tall, strongly built bearded man, nicknamed the Madman in the fraternity for his eccentric ideas, came from a poor provincial family. And therefore, unlike Gabriel, he was distinguished by his diligence - he had no right to let down his relatives, who had invested their last money in his education.

John Everett Millais
A well-groomed handsome man nicknamed Baby, the youngest in the fraternity, with early childhood was a favorite in his wealthy family. Everyone without exception believed in his talent, and at the age of eleven he became the youngest student at the Royal Academy of Arts. For him, favored by critics and professors, joining the fraternity was akin to rebellion.

Other young people joined the brotherhood from time to time, but these three were its backbone. Together they wandered around brothels in search of a muse. For without a muse the artist does not exist.

Muses of the brothers

The Pre-Raphaelites were extremely demanding of women. They were looking for extraordinary, “medieval” beauty that could amaze. Rossetti even came up with the word stunner for such a woman (from the verb to stun - to amaze), which has become firmly established in the English language. And, of course, the muse had to have gorgeous hair, preferably red.

Finding such a girl in a brothel was not easy. Only Hunt succeeded. His model and part-time mistress Annie Miller was distinguished by her curvaceous figure and a shock of golden hair. It was Annie who posed for his most famous paintings"The Hired Shepherd" and "Woke Shame."

"The Hired Shepherd" by William Hunt, 1851

While creating these paintings, Hunt came up with a strange idea to “transform” Annie. Pull her out of the bottom of English society, re-educate her, and then marry her. In the following years, the Madman spent a lot of money on Annie’s attendance at boarding schools for noble maidens and decent outfits.

The idea did not leave Hunt until William, returning from a business trip to the Holy Land, where he painted a goat, learned that all this time Annie had been cheating on him with Rossetti. And she didn’t just cheat – she also supplied the Italian with Hunt’s money. Relations between Hunt and Rossetti deteriorated. However, when the friendly crisis passed, Gabriel continued to borrow money from William.

Rossetti never had money. Even if he managed to successfully sell the painting, it turned out that he had spent the money before he received it. The artist wore shabby, worn-out clothes, not even bothering to sew patches on his pants. Instead, Gabriel painted the skin of his legs, which showed through the holes, with black paint. But even in such an indecent appearance, the young Italian made a deadly impression on women. Sometimes literally...

Appearance of Ophelia

Elizabeth Siddal's biography was as typical as it was boring. The daughter of a London knife sharpener, she worked in a hat shop, sewing feathers and ribbons onto hats she could never afford herself. She was to marry a local merchant in a greasy robe, give birth to children and grow old in obscurity. This would certainly have happened if the artist Walter Deverell, close in spirit to the Pre-Raphaelites, had not once looked into the window of a hat shop on Cranburg Alley.

A girl of amazing appearance appeared before his eyes. Tall, thin, with chiseled features, a thin nose and alabaster-toned skin. But the main thing is her hair. Bright red, styled in a low bun, they blinded like the summer sun. The next day, Lizzie was tracked down by all the Pre-Raphaelites in full force. Rossetti was smitten. He wanted to write to the girl immediately.

Miss Siddal was puzzled and flattered by this outburst of adoration: in the circle in which she grew up, Elizabeth was not considered a beauty. Lizzie's father was harder to impress. In the 19th century, models were equated with prostitutes, and his daughter, although from a poor family, was a decent girl. Deverell had to bring his mother, and she vouched for Lizzie's honor to the Siddal family. Mr. Siddal finally gave up when he learned that a model earns three times more per hour than a hat shop worker.

So it began brilliant career Lizzie. Rossetti first portrayed Elizabeth as the Virgin Mary in The Annunciation. The girl then posed for Hunt. From it he painted the hair of Christ for the painting “Light of the Earth” - for the first time in history, Jesus became the owner of long red hair.

But real fame came to the red-haired muse after “Ophelia” by Millais. (By the way, it was this picture that inspired the directors of the video for the song by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave.) In a heavy old-fashioned dress, Lizzie lay in the bathroom in the artist’s studio, her wet hair intertwined with flowers. Milles's compassionate mother placed dozens of candles under the bathtub so that they would not allow the water to cool. But time passed, the candles burned out, the water cooled.

"Ophelia" by John Millais, 1851

Not daring to interfere with the work of the genius, Elizabeth lay motionless in cold water until she lost consciousness. Only when the model sank did Milles wake up from his creative trance and rush to call for help. The doctor who examined the blue-faced Lizzie said that the cold had affected her lungs. Mr. Siddal was indignant. He felt that this strange work would not end well! Millais had to pay the girl's father 50 pounds (a huge sum in those days) to get Lizzie back. A serious illness brought Miss Siddal and Rossetti closer together. Now he called her by the affectionate nickname Sid, and she increasingly spent the night in his studio.

Milles finished Ophelia. The picture had incredible success, and not only among the audience, but also among critics, who replaced their anger with mercy towards the brotherhood. One after another, the Pre-Raphaelites began to receive expensive orders. Need and blasphemy - their faithful companions - are a thing of the past. John Ruskin, who became the official patron of the brotherhood, was so pleased that he did Millais a great honor - he offered to use Mrs. Effie Ruskin as a model for the next painting. A decision that the critic will soon regret.

Divorce of the century

The Ruskins were known in society as a pleasant couple. Unless John Ruskin was too fixated on art, and his wife, the beautiful Effie, on entertainment. However, Mrs. Ruskin was not frivolous: she was well educated, well read, played the piano wonderfully and sang magically. The Ruskins had not yet had time to have children, and therefore Effie had free time and easily agreed to pose for Millais for the painting “Order for Release,” even though women from high society did not pose for the subject paintings. Effie had to spend many hours alone with Milles, who was a year younger than her. IN Victorian era men were forbidden to hold their gaze on a woman for a long time, but painting a picture was a special case.

Millais studied Mrs. Ruskin's features thoroughly. And, as expected, I fell in love. And after some time, after long intimate conversations, Effie confessed to John her terrible secret: she is still a virgin. Ruskin refuses to touch her, arguing this with a variety of pretexts, claiming, for example, that childbirth disfigures a woman*. Moreover, with each new demand from Effie to consummate the marriage, Ruskin became increasingly angry, called his wife sick and hinted that he would get rid of her by confining her to a madhouse (the most popular way for spouses to separate in Victorian England). Milles was horrified. The ideal image of his patron Ruskin was dissipating, giving way to a much more picturesque image of his wife. The artist told Effie that she needed to act, and immediately, fortunately, the girl’s parents, having learned about the true state of affairs, took her side.

*- Note Phacochoerus "a Funtik: « In general, Ruskin was accused of pedophilia and hostility towards the bodies of adult women. After all, he fell in love with Effie when she was a teenager. And at the age of 48, he fell in love again, with 9-year-old Rose La Touche. Agree, it's suspicious »

The painting “Order for Release” was exhibited in 1853. The public was outraged. Firstly, Mrs. Ruskin was being hugged by a man, clearly not Mr. Ruskin (in fact, Millais did not use a living man, but a mannequin). Secondly, Mrs. Ruskin's legs were visible without shoes and stockings (Milles painted the legs of another model). But the main scandal was ahead.

After the exhibition it became known that Mrs. Ruskin fled from her husband to parents' house and declared a desire for a divorce on the ground that Mr. Ruskin had never made her his wife. The abandoned critic tore and threw. He was especially hurt by suspicions of impotence. “I can appear in the honorable court even tomorrow and prove my potency,” Ruskin wrote to the highest authorities. How exactly the critic intended to prove potency, unfortunately, remains unclear.

In the capable hands of Queen Victoria's gynecologist, Effie successfully underwent a humiliating virginity test, which proved that she was pure and that "Mrs. Ruskin has no contraindications to the performance of marital duties." Effie received her writ of emancipation—a divorce—in 1854. A year later she married John Everett Millais. They lived happily ever after and had eight children.

Great Exhumer

Meanwhile, the relationship between Elizabeth Siddal and Dante Rossetti was not idyllic. Lizzie found herself in a hopeless situation. For several years now she had openly cohabited with the artist - now even an ill-fated salesman in a greasy apron would not marry her. Rossetti's constant betrayals did not make the situation any easier. Lizzie became addicted to the tincture of opium, laudanum, which was sold legally in every pharmacy. Finally, on May 23, 1860, the lovers finally got married in the cold wind-swept seaside town of Hastings. There were no relatives or friends at the wedding, random passersby played the role of witnesses, and the bride was so weak that Rossetti had to carry her from the hotel to the church in his arms.

The long-awaited wedding did not save the situation: Dante continued to visit brothels, Lizzie continued to visit pharmacies. She took laudanum in huge doses, even while pregnant, and in 1861 gave birth to a dead daughter.

Returning one evening from another dubious walk, Rossetti found his wife fast asleep and snoring loudly. On the bed the artist found a note: “Take care of my brother.” Despite all the efforts - their own and the arriving doctor, Lizzie could not be woken up. Gabriel destroyed the note: suicides were not entitled to a place in the cemetery, and their families faced indelible shame.

In the days remaining before the funeral, Rossetti behaved like an exemplary Italian husband who had gone crazy with grief. In the middle of his studio there was a coffin with Lizzie, and he did not leave it for hours, begging his wife to “come back.” During the funeral, Rossetti sobbed and placed the only notebook with his poems in Lizzie’s coffin, vowing not to write more verses.

For many years, Gabriel claimed that Lizzie's spirit visited him every night. He painted the most famous portrait of Lizzie, “The Divine Beatrice,” years after her death. Pay attention to the poppy that the helpful dove brings to the girl. Not only does the poppy symbolize death, it is also used to make the opium that killed Lizzie.

Rossetti committed his most shocking act seven years after the death of his wife. He was offered to publish a collection of poems. It was then that the artist remembered where he had put the only copy of the notebook.

Under the cover of darkness, the peace of Lizzie's grave was disturbed. Gabriel did not dig up the grave himself; helpful people did it for him. Then they said that the ashes had completely decayed and the entire coffin was filled with golden, divinely beautiful hair. Rossetti was glad that the notebook with poems was almost undamaged. As he put it in a letter to a friend, “Only in a few places the pages were eaten away by worms.” In essence, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, at least its first members, disintegrated quite quickly. Hunt never recovered from the betrayal of Annie and Rossetti, and Millais spent more and more time with his family. But the first Pre-Raphaelites had followers, whom many art historians tend to attribute to the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism. Rossetti especially became friends with one of them, William Morris, a man of enormous talent and caricatured appearance.

Plump, clumsy Morris followed Rossetti, listening to his every word. During one of their visits to the Oxford Theater, both noticed an amazing girl. Commoner Jane had all the qualities of a stunner: gorgeous curly brown hair, chiseled features and a long neck. Jane married William Morris, who inherited a significant fortune, but allowed Rossetti to admire her (perhaps in a physical sense too).

Eyes like buttons did not look at me,
Even though his sides were plump,
Death took him with it in the heat of the moment.

The whole menagerie was run by Rossetti's new muse - Fanny Cornforth, whom he took from the brothel. Of all the Pre-Raphaelite models, Fanny was perhaps the most vulgar. Her appearance - rounded shape, full lips, floor-length red hair - screamed about undisguised sensuality, and she did not suppress these screams. Fanny, nicknamed the Elephant by Rossetti, served as the model for the Holy Grail.

Another of Rossetti’s muses in the late period of his work was the milliner Alexa Wilding, the artist’s only model with whom he did not have a romantic or sexual relationship. You can admire her on the canvases “Veronica Veronese” and “Monna Vanna”. But in the painting “Lady Lilith” (see the first illustration for the article), the artist painted the body of Fanny Cornforth with the face of Alexa Wilding.

We hope we've inspired you to dust off that box of markers and draw something great (a tank, for example). If you want to take a double dose of inspiration, go to Pushkin Museum city ​​of Moscow for the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition. You can either, like Dickens, criticize their works, or, like Ruskin, vice versa.

R. Fenton. Interior of Tintern Abbey, late 1850s

In 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood arose in Great Britain, an association of artists created by William Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Millais. Young painters were against the academic education system and the conservative tastes of Victorian society.

The Pre-Raphaelites were inspired by the painting of the Italian Proto-Renaissance and the 15th century, hence the very name “Pre-Raphaelites” - literally “before Raphael” (Italian artist High Renaissance Rafael Santi).

The invention of the wet colloid process, which replaced calotype, by Frederick Scott Archer coincided with the emergence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Members of the fraternity enthusiastically welcomed the emergence of a new method. At a time when most artists considered the amazing precision of photographic images to be a disadvantage, the Pre-Raphaelites, who themselves strived for meticulous depiction of detail in painting, admired precisely this aspect of photography. Pre-Raphaelite art critic John Ruskin spoke of the first daguerreotypes he bought in Venice as “little treasures”: “It was as if a magician had shrunk the real thing (San Marco or the Canal Grande) so that he could carry it away with him.” to an enchanted land."

The Pre-Raphaelites, like many artists at that time, used photographs as a preparatory stage for creating paintings. Gabriel Rossetti took a series of photographs of Jane Morris, which became material for the artist’s future paintings. Rossetti and William Morris painted and photographed this woman many times, finding in her features of the romantic medieval beauty that they so admired.

A few years after the formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the movement “For Highly Artistic Photography” appeared in England. The organizers of this movement were the painters Oscar Gustav Reilander (1813–1875) and Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901), who were closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and shared their ideas. Reilander and Robinson, like the Pre-Raphaelites, drew inspiration from the world of images of medieval English literature, from the works of English poets William Shakespeare and John Milton. In 1858, Robinson created one of his best photographs, “The Lady of Shalott,” close in composition to the Pre-Raphaelite painting “Ophelia” by D. Millais. Being an adherent of photomontage, Robinson printed a photograph from two negatives: on one negative the author took a model in a canoe, on the other he captured the landscape.

Participants in the movement “For Highly Artistic Photography” interpreted the photograph as a painting, in full accordance with the norms of academic painting. In his book Pictorial Effect in Photography (1869), Robinson referred to the rules of composition, harmony and balance necessary to achieve the “pictorial effect”: “The artist who wishes to produce pictures with a camera is subject to the same laws as the artist. using paints and pencils."

Oscar Gustav Reilander was born in Sweden, studied painting in Italy and moved to England in 1841. Reilander became interested in photography in the 1850s. He became famous for his allegorical composition “Two Ways of Life,” exhibited in 1857 at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester. The photograph was taken using the photomontage technique, and Reilander needed 30 (!) negatives to make it. But lack of public recognition led him to abandon his labor-intensive technique and move on to portraiture. In contrast to his allegorical compositions, Reilander's portraits are more advanced in their execution technique. The portrait of Miss Mander is one of Reilander's finest.

The painter Roger Fenton (1819–1869) adhered to the most high opinion about photography, and even founded a photographic society in 1853. His early series of photographs of Russia, portraits of the royal family and reports from the Crimean War brought him international recognition. Fenton’s approach to the landscape is associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and their vision: a highly raised horizon line, the absence of such romantic techniques as haze, fog, etc. Fenton, like the Pre-Raphaelites, sought to emphasize his technical skill and glorified the tangible reality of the landscape. The master also shared the Pre-Raphaelite interest in women in exotic costumes, which can be seen in the Nubian Water Bearers or Egyptian Dancing Girls.

Particularly noteworthy are the photographs of children taken by Lewis Carroll (1832–1898). The author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and professor of mathematics at Oxford University, Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was also a gifted amateur photographer. For Carroll, light painting was not just a pastime, but a great passion, to which he devoted a lot of time and to which he dedicated several small essays and even the poem “Hiawatha Photographer” (1857):

On Hiawatha's shoulder is a box made of rosewood: The apparatus is so collapsible, Made of planks and glass, Cleverly tightened with screws, To fit into the box. Hiawatha climbs into the casket and pushes the hinges apart, transforming the small casket into a cunning figure, as if from the books of Euclid. He places it on a tripod and climbs under the black canopy. Crouching, he waves his hand: - Well! Freeze! I beg you! Quite a strange thing to do.

The writer devoted 25 years to this “strange” occupation, during which he created wonderful children’s portraits, showing himself to be a keen expert on child psychology. Like the Pre-Raphaelites, who, in search of ideal and beauty, retreated further and further into the world of their fantasy, Carroll searched for his fairy-tale Alice in the photographic Through the Looking Glass. Mrs. Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1878) turned to photography in the mid-1860s when her daughter gave her a camera. “I longed to capture all the beauty that passed before me,” Cameron wrote, “and at last my desire was granted.”

In 1874–75, Cameron, at the request of her friend Tennyson, illustrated some of his poems and poems. The composition of the photograph “The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere” is close to the composition of the paintings of D. G. Rossetti, but Cameron does not have the same precision in conveying details that is inherent in the Pre-Raphaelites. By softening the optical design, Cameron achieves greater poetry in his works.

The work of the Pre-Raphaelites and photographers was very closely related. Moreover, the influence was not one-sided. Julia Cameron, abandoning precise focusing, created magnificent photographic studies. Rossetti, who highly appreciated her work, changed his style of writing, subsequently striving for greater artistic generalization. Gabriel Rossetti and John Millais used photographs to create their paintings, and photographers in turn turned to themes developed by the Pre-Raphaelites. Photographic portraits created by L. Carroll, D. M. Cameron and O. G. Reilander convey not so much the character as the moods and dreams of their models - which is characteristic of Pre-Raphaelism. The approach to depicting nature was the same: the early landscapes of the Pre-Raphaelites and landscapes of photographers such as Roger Fenton are extremely accurate and detailed.

Mock, Rousseau and Voltaire, boldly drop Your mocking, laughing, ever-mocking gaze everywhere, Throw a handful of sand against the wind, The same wind will immediately throw it back to you. Having reflected patterns of divine light in the grains of sand, He will be able to turn them all into precious stones, And, throwing away the sand, it will blind shameless gazes, And the roads of Israel will shine and will continue to shine. Democritus' atoms, points that rush around, arguing, Light particles of Newton's children's play, These are just grains of sand on the shore of the Red Sea, Where Israel pitched its golden tents. William Blake is yours

Pre-Raphaelite painting

Second half of the 19th century. Art is becoming more and more realistic.
The main theme of art is visible, audible, tangible..
But in the middle of the century, more precisely in 1849, in rationalistic Victorian England, whose atmosphere was very conducive to this state of affairs, an association of artists arose who opposed it with worlds of their imagination, similar to fairy tale.
It was during this era that the English professor of mathematics Lewis Carroll came up with the world of Through the Looking Glass

SIR JOHN EVERETT MILLES

called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, as opposed to academic artists who considered themselves followers of the great Italian.
The very name of this society, which was secret at first, says a lot about the ideals and goals of these young people. It was not for nothing that they called their circle “Brotherhood” - like a kind of monastic or knightly order, expressing their desire for the purity and spiritual intensity of medieval art, and from the definition of “Pre-Raphaelites” it is clear exactly what period they were focusing on - before Raphael.

Members of the brotherhood rushed to a different era, to beautiful world border arts, the world of dying Gothic and the emerging Renaissance, when artists were “honest before God” artisans, at a time when the desire for ideal had not yet deprived art of the main thing, in their opinion, - sincerity.
They believed that it was necessary to return to the pious, simple, natural and naturalistic style of the artists of the 14th-15th centuries. and, more importantly, return to nature itself
Later, Pre-Raphaelites began to be called not only direct members of the brotherhood, but also other artists, as well as poets and writers of Victorian England who professed similar aesthetic views.

Following the romantics of the turn of the century, they drew inspiration from the images of the Middle Ages. In legends, chivalric novels, songs and sagas. And from the very beginning, next to the magical images of medieval legends, beautiful faces of Christian saints and martyrs arose.
A little later, antique motifs came into their work, but their interpretation was strikingly different from the usual.
They did not copy the medieval style, but tried to reproduce the spirit of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.

What was the most important thing about it for them? There is only one answer - beauty.
It is not for nothing that they considered the creation of absolutely beautiful works of art among the main tasks of their association. In all the objects they took from reality to construct their world, they found beauty, which in turn was evidence of divine greatness and nature, which had a transcendental origin. Beauty for them was the thread of Ariadne that connected our world and the Divine world.

The first romantics of the era of Queen Victoria.

Between 1848 and 49 The Pre-Raphaelites produced many paintings, easily distinguished by their bright colors and many carefully rendered details. They turned to subjects that were not typical of academics: biblical scenes, medieval poetry (ballads, Chaucer), Shakespeare, folk ballads, the work of contemporary poets (for example, John Keats), etc.

Each painting was marked with a secret PRB mark. Their paintings can be called naturalistic, but they did not put a modern meaning into this word, but the idea that, in imitation of the Trecento and Quattrocento artists, one should paint simply, without rules, without theory.

The famous "Annunciation" by Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Annunciation. 1850. Tate Gallery

The masters of the Italian Renaissance portrayed Madonna as a saint who had nothing to do with everyday life.
By presenting the Annunciation realistically, Rossetti broke all traditions. His Madonna is an ordinary girl, confused and frightened by the news brought to her by an Angel. Such unusual approach, which enraged many art lovers, was in keeping with the Pre-Raphaelites' intention to paint truthfully.

The public did not like the painting “The Annunciation”: the artist was accused of imitating the old Italian masters. The realism of the image caused strong disapproval (including from Charles Dickens),

Rossetti was suspected of sympathizing with the papacy.
But the Pre-Raphaelites soon gained a large following, especially among the growing middle classes of central and northern England. Members of the Brotherhood presented their ideas in articles, stories and poems published in their magazine Rostock, and by the end of 1850 they were known about them outside the academy.

"Beata Beatrix", a "monument" of love for a lost wife...

Beata Beatrix. Day dreams.

The marriage and subsequent suicide of his wife, poet and artist Elizabeth Siddal, also had a huge impact on his life and work. She was his student, model, lover and main source of inspiration. Rossetti loved her for almost 10 years, and made many sketches of Elizabeth, some of which later served as sketches for his paintings.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Beata Beatrix. 1864-1870.

Melancholy and suffering from tuberculosis, Lizzie died two years after her marriage from an opium overdose.

Ophelia by John Millais, another tragic love story

John Milles. Ophelia. 1852. Tate Gallery

The stained glass window was painted from life, and every dry leaf was painted with amazing care. Then Lizzie Siddel posed for this picture, whom Milles forced to lie in the bath in order to most realistically paint wet fabric and hair (Lizzie, of course, had a cold).
The flowers, depicted in the painting with stunning botanical accuracy, have symbolic meaning– they refer to the text of the play. Milles painted the stream and flowers from life. At first he included daffodils in the picture, but then he learned that they no longer bloom at this time of year, so he painted them over.

And again Shakespearean heroes, this time “Claudio and Isabella” (heroes of the play “Measure for Measure”) by Holman Hunt...

Shakespeare's Claudio and Isabella from the play Measure for Measure 1850

The plot of the play dates back to something popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
a story that is very widespread not only in the form of oral tradition, but also in
novelistic and dramatic treatment. Basically it comes down to
to the following: the lover or sister of a person sentenced to death asks
judges pardoning him; the judge promises to fulfill her request on the condition that
She will sacrifice her innocence to him for this. Having received the desired gift, the judge
no less orders that the sentence be carried out; according to the victim's complaint,
the ruler orders the offender to marry his victim, and after the wedding ceremony
execute him

On English soil proper, they were based on the views of William Blake and John Ruskin

John Ruskin

Ruskin - art theorist

The art critic Ruskin called for looking for God in nature and was also afraid that nature would soon disappear due to industrialization, and it was necessary to capture it as God created it and “find His signature in it.” He himself an outstanding artist was not, but provided the Pre-Raphaelites with an ideological basis. He liked the aspirations of the Pre-Raphaelites and defended their methods from the attacks of the academicians.
In religious and symbolic motives young Pre-Raphaelite artists John Ruskin saw an important discovery in art. He proposed a set of unshakable rules with a call to study nature and use the achievements of science.

Ruskin:
“Is it not because we love our creations more than Him that we value colored glass rather than bright clouds... And, making fonts and erecting columns in honor of Him... we imagine that we will be forgiven for our shameful neglect of hills and streams, with which He endowed our habitation - the earth"

Thomas Phillips Portrait of William Blake 1807

William Blake - the harmony of nature, in his opinion, was only an anticipation of more
high harmony, which should be created by a holistic and spiritual
personality. This conviction also predetermined Blake's creative principles.
For romantics, nature is a mirror of the soul, for Blake it is more like a book of symbols.
He does not value either the colorfulness of the landscape or its authenticity, just as he does not value psychologism.

Painting by William Blake.

Everything around him is perceived in the light of spiritual conflicts,
and above all through the prism of the eternal conflict between mechanistic and free
visions. In nature he reveals the same passivity and mechanicalness that
and in social life.

Listen to the Singer's voice! His song will awaken your hearts with the Word of the Creator - the Word was, and is, and will be. It calls for lost souls, Crying over the evening dew, And the firmament is black - It will light up the stars again, It will snatch the world from its daughter's darkness! “Come back, O Earth of Light, Shaking off the dewy darkness! The night is decrepit, The dawn gloom is glimmering in an inert quagmire. Never disappear! What are you itching for here? There’s a star in the sky, There’s water in the sea - There’s not much to be found.”

In 1850, the Pre-Raphaelites published the magazine "Rostock" (The Germ), where they published their own and their friends' literary experiments - in fact, they learned about them through this magazine. But they never had a formal program, and all the artists united by a common idea were completely different. Suffice it to say that by the mid-1850s they actually went their separate ways.

The first works of the Brotherhood are two paintings:

Isabella (1848-9, Milles) and the Childhood of Maria (1848-9, Rossetti).
Both are completely unusual for the time.

Isabella John Everett Millais.

For example, in Isabella there is no perspective: all the figures sitting at the table are the same size. An unconventional plot was used (a rather dark short story by Boccaccio, retold by Keats, about two lovers, Lorenzo and Isabella: Lorenzo was a servant in the house where Isabella lived with her brothers, and when the brothers found out that Lorenzo and Isabella were in love with each other, they they killed the young man; his spirit appeared to the girl and pointed out where the body was buried, and Isabella went there, dug up her lover’s head and hid it in a pot of basil; however, his brothers took it from her, and in the end she died) and numerous symbols (on in the window there is a pot with the same basil, and near it two passionflowers are intertwined, “the flower of suffering”; Lorenzo serves Isabella an orange on a plate on which a biblical scene of beheading is depicted).

Childhood of the Virgin Mary.

In Mary's Childhood there is also no perspective: the figures of the Virgin Mary and her mother Anna in the foreground are actually the same size as the figure of Joachim, Mary's father, in the second. It is interesting that the sacred plot is presented as quite everyday, and if not for the presence of an angel and halos above our heads, we might not understand that this is a scene from the life of the Mother of God. This picture is also filled with symbols that Rossetti generally loved very much: a dove sits on the lattice, a symbol of the Holy Spirit and the future Annunciation; books are a symbol of virtue, a lily is a symbol of purity, the intertwined branches of palm and rose hips symbolize the seven joys and seven sorrows of the Mother of God, grapes are communion, a lamp is piety. Many of the symbols, especially those of Rossetti, were not traditional, so the artists had to explain them to the audience; here, for example, a sonnet is written on the frame.

To be continued…