The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood was a group of art students who wanted to rebel against the norm being taught in the painting world, wanting to embrace art of the past and move away from the stifling style forced upon them at the Royal Academy of Art in London. Based in the United Kingdom during the 1840s and 50s, this revolutionary group was made up of only seven people in the beginning. They lived in a time of intense change, with the industrial world booming and calls for reform sweeping the nation. This unrest caused a desire to return to classical ideals the Pre-Raphaelites felt were being lost in modern society, so they turned to artwork of the past. This group upheld four ideals throughout all of their work: to have genuine ideas, to appreciate the beauty and intricacies of nature, to emulate the themes and subjects of previous art, and to create “thoroughly good pictures and statues.”
With the support of prominent art critic John Ruskin, artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais flourished, despite keeping their identities a secret—choosing instead to sign their work with the initials “P.R.B.”. This group of promising young artists sought to return to a simpler time, before the Renaissance changed the art world forever: a time before Raphael. They emulated countless medieval artworks in their own with vibrant jewel tones, even lighting, and subjects often drawing from medieval or classical literature. They did, however, possess a reverence for nature that was so prominent during the nineteenth century. In nearly every painting from this movement, there is always an element of the natural world, whether it be the main subject of the piece or tucked away in a corner.
To look at one piece, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Joan of Arc (1882), you can see that the subject is a prominent figure from the medieval period, which is further exemplified by the plate armor she is wearing and the French royal symbol of the fleur-de-lis in the background. Despite it not making too much sense, there is a flower motif all across her clothing, demonstrating the appreciation for nature the Pre-Raphaelites pursued. The whole painting is full of this bright amber color, a beautiful jewel tone reminiscent of medieval religious artwork and tapestries. The lighting is fairly even throughout, again evoking medieval art, but the more modern understanding of anatomy is clear.
As the century progressed, the movement began to peter out, but artists such as John William Waterhouse kept its legacy alive. By the time the 1900s rolled around, Pre-Raphaelism was all but gone. Yet its unique appearance would strike humanity for many years to come.
