The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood & the Arts and Crafts Movement

• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848 (-1860) by three Englishmen, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt. They signed their paintings with a cipher - PRB. They all appreciated the simplicity of line and large flat areas of colour (often found in early Italian paintings before Raphael), as well as Flemish paintings. They were also inspired by the writing of John Ruskin, especially the passage from Modern Painters advising artists "to go to nature in all singleness of heart... rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing." They paid had an extreme attention to detail.

• They were all socialist leaning, similar to Courbet and Millet.

• The socialist movement was a turning point in the 19th century. There was a petition at Parliament to introduce a new constitution - this was the largest protest ever, even to this day.

William Etty, Ulysses and the Sirens, 1837, Manchester City Art Gallery

John Everett Millais, Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru, 1846, V&A, London

• Etty's painting Ulysses and the Sirens is a History Painting of a great mythological episode. There are elements of romanticism, it is a late, eclectic form of Classicism that embraces Romanticism. Millais painting Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru rebelled against the works that were celebrated by the academy.

• The ethos of the Pre-Raphaelites was to go back to the medieval or pre-Renaissance spirituality paintings, and to especially embrace the aesthetics of the Florentine pre-Renaissance artists.

• But why did they stop at Raphael? Because Raphael was considered the base for the academy. He was inventive, came up with new solutions, he was an intellectual painter. His works were considered to be the 'new antique', they were universal, eternal and were the perfect foundation on which to build the academy. Raphael's works were used as a benchmark for the academy, he was the painter that everyone had to imitate. In the foundation of the revelation of the academy, students needed to copy Raphael, as his works were full of grace and always reflected decorum. 

• 240 years later this can be seen as pedantic, constraining and very backward looking. The academy aimed at an aesthetic that was in a position that was more in tune with the regeneration of society. 

Millais, John Ruskin, 1853-4

• As already mentioned, the Pre-Raphaelites embraced the aesthetic of the most influential theoretician of the 19th century - John Ruskin. They wanted to return to the spiritualisation of the Medieval and away from industrialised art. Return of the spiritual aim - Only through great art can you reform society. 

Giovanni Lasinio, Engraving of frescoes in the Campo Santo, Pisa 

• This was in a period when Medieval frecoes were produced in print and were properly appreciated for the first time. 

• There was a widespread taste for the primitive in terms of form, subject and iconography. Many artists going back to Biblical and early Medieval histories as subject matters. Unlike the academy. 

Millais, Lorenzo and Isabella, 1849, Liverpool

• Millais had great precision in details, clearly influenced by Flemish artists. 

Millais, Christ in the House of his Parents, 1849-50, Tate Britain

• Millais display Christ in the House of his Parents at an exhibition in 1850, the same year as Courbet exhibited his Funeral at Ornans. Millais painting was met by horror by the critics, a typical reaction from the mainstream public. Millais was doing something completely new, that they were not used to. It is an indecorous, highly symbolic painting, with many objects refiguring the crucifixion (wound on his hand referring to his stigmata, John the Baptist bringing him water, etc.), Millais was trying to portray the gospel and the life of Jesus.

• The influence of modern early Flemish art is clear in the accuracy of the details and the perfect finish. Compared to Courbet, the Pre-Raphaelites are very traditional in the way that they paint. 

Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini, 1850, Tate Britain

Fra Angelico, Annunciation, c. 1437-1446, San Marco, Florence

• Rossetti's Ecce Ancilla Domini depicts the Virgin Mary as a young Victorian working class girl, in a simple, stark interior. Here, Rossetti is really trying to recreate the text of the bible. He was clearly looking back and using prototypes from the early Renaissance, for example, Fra Angelico's Annunciation has a very similar general tone - pure, essential simplicity. This was interpreted by the Pre-Raphaelites as more spiritual.

Millais, Ophelia, 1852, Tate Britain

Millais, Ophelia - detail, 1852, Tate Britain

• Millais was looking back to one of the most famous British narratives in literature with his painting Ophelia - the famous episode in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia drowns herself. It is of the English Renaissance, but set in Medieval Denmark. There is often an element of eroticism in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. This painting was considered to be incredibly realistic, not only of Ophelia, but of the water and flowers too. The flowers are also symbolic - poppyseeds are a reference to dealth in the underworld - opium is the symbol of death. It was considered to be extremely realistic compared to what Etty and other academic painters were producing at the same time.

Hunt, The Awakening Conscience, 1853, Tate

• Hunt was the most religious of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but he depicted a lot of social subjects. He came from a working class background. This painting comes from David Copperfield in Dickens. She realises that she should put the life she is living to and end; leave the allure of easy money and escape to a more simple pure life. Every detail of this painting is rendered, again suggesting Flemish influences. In the mirror behind the couple, we can see that she is looking at the purity of nature beyond the window. It depicts a subject that is very realistic and common.

• The third of the three Pre-Raphaelites was Rossetti, he was the leader of the group. Many of his early subjects were religious, but he moved to metaphorical.

Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, 1855, Liverpool museums

• Elizabeth Siddal was the model and wife of Rossetti, she was beautiful but very unhappy. She committed suicide by taking a variation of opium that was more powerful than absinthe. 

Rossetti, Beata Beatrix, 1863, Tate

• Rossetti goes more and more into metaphorical and symbolic paintings, using Botticelli's 15th century paintings as inspiration. Here Elizabeth is shown as Beatrix, the sundial on 9, the hour in which she dies, holding the poppy. A very erotic painting.

Rossetti, Proserpina, 1873-7, Tate Britain

Photograph of Jane Morris, 1865

• Rossetti painted Proserpina as Empress of Hades. William Morris' wife Jane, was the model for this painting. Again, lots of symbols - pomegranate, incense burner, etc. 

Photograph of Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, 1874

• What the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood did had a long lasting impact on the art and architecture of the 20th century. Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and in a way continued it after the dissolution.

Oxford Union, Debating Hall

• William Morris was a great follower of Ruskin. His aim was to go back to the original of individualisation, and move away from the industrialisation of the arts. With the Arts and Crafts Movement he established Morris & Co. and began producing architecture, interior design, charis, fabrics, books, etc. All of these products were connected with the principles and ethos of Ruskin. 

William Morris, Willow Bough, 1887

• The idea of Morris was to reform the condition of the working classes with decorative and beautiful arts, that would not only educate them, but also provide employment in production. He goes back to Medieval and Renaissance production in a cry against modernity.

Red House, Bexleyheath, Kent, 1859

• The medieval masonry Red House was designed by William Morris and was his family home. Many Pre-Raphaelite members frequently visited and helped to decorate the interior.

Kelmscott Manor, Oxfordshire

• Kelmscott Manor was where Morris established his workshop and the Kelmscott Press. It was here that he produced tapestries, chairs, and fabrics. He also produced some of his most famous books, produced through wood block prints. Even with his books he was looking back at 15th/16th century production techniques.

William Morris, Daisy wallpaper, 1864

William Morris, News From Nowhere, Kelmscott Press, 1892

Ernest Gimson, Settee, 1906

Arthur Mackmurdo, Chair, 1882

Arthur Mackmurdo, Title Page, 1883

• The paradox is that William Morris failed miserably; what he wanted to do was reform society though art, works that could enter the homes of the working class, but this never happened because of the expensive production. Instead the products went directly to collectors.