Anna Louise May (Maya) 2023
The Founding &
Philosophy of the New
Pre-Raphaelite
Movement
In London, 1848, a
group of artists, writers
and poets established a
movement called the
Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood (PRB). Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
John Everett Millais and William Holman-
Hunt recorded their combined objective
during their first meeting as follows:
1. To have genuine ideas to express.
2. To study nature attentively, so as to know
how to express them.
3. To sympathise with what is direct and
serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the
exclusion of what is conventional and self-
parading and learned by rote;
4. And most indispensable of all, to produce
thoroughly good pictures and statues.
The PRB opposed the inauthenticity of the
presiding Victorian style and substance
prevalent in art at the time. They maintained
that art should be about truth and the
expression of truth above all things. To that
end, they included more realistic images,
and darker themes in their work, expressing
fundamental human desires, emotions and
aspirations. They derived great inspiration
from Shakespeare and mythology; and
communicated the sacred aspects of
mundane human life in their paintings and
poetry.
This fresh approach was
met with the disdain
and criticism of the art
establishment at the
time. The Brotherhood
were considered to be
irrelevant, irreverent
and subversive! The
quality, composition and
messages of their art
were derided and it
seemed for a while that they wouldn’t make
any significant influence on the
establishment. Indeed, they never imagined
how influential their ideas would prove!
Things turned around for the Brotherhood
when they attracted the interest and
patronage of the eminent art-critic, John
Ruskin. He sympathised with their
philosophy and recognised the sincerity of
their cause. Despite his own doubts about
Rossetti’s work ethics (and lack of ethics in
general), he encouraged and promoted
them. Undoubtedly, if it hadn’t been for his
willingness to take a chance on them and
stand up to their detractors, it’s likely they
wouldn’t have become the paragon of
Victorian artistry we consider them to be
today.
Despite the fact that the founding members
were only united in this venture for 5 years,
the movement they initiated continued for a
further 50 years and has remained popular
ever since.
The PRB can be considered a “subculture”: a
'grass roots' development that expressed the
needs, desires and soul-deep ideals of a
small group of people. They were united in
progressing the deep spiritual need for truth
and authenticity in life, faithfully