Pre-Raphaelites (English) Pre-Raphaelites listen)) is a trend in painting and literature of the 19th century (early 1850). The very name of the Pre-Raphaelites attributed the artists of this trend to the Florentine artists who were before, such as Perugino, Giovanni Bellini and others. The Pre-Raphaelites fought against the blind imitation of classical art. The most famous figures of this genre were: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Arthur Hughes, Walter Crane, John William Waterhouse and others.

The movement was called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The fraternity included: J. E. Millais, Holman Hunta, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Michael Rossetti, Thomas Woolner, Frederick Stevens, and James Collinson. They believed that modern painting had reached a dead end and was not developing at all. The only way to fix this, they considered a return to early Italian art, which existed before the great artist Raphael. They considered Raphael the founder of Academicism, which violated the sincerity and purity of painting.

At their core, they were the real opposition to modern painting. For the first time, the abbreviation P. R. B. i.e. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood appeared in Rossetti's Youth of the Virgin Mary. She then appeared in such paintings as Isabella by artist J. E. Millet and Rienzi by artist Holman Hunt. In addition, the fraternity released their own magazine, which was called Sprout.

The emergence of such a dissenting community was determined by the system itself, by the then established laws of painting. In British painting, there was practically one academicism, which was controlled by the Royal Academy of Arts. This official institution followed all the innovations, new trends in art and, one might say, cut off the oxygen to everything that did not look like academicism. People began to frankly get bored with the abstractly beautiful nature in all the paintings in a row, events far from reality, exemplary mythological and religious plots.

The Pre-Raphaelites basically drew from life. Contemporaries of the Pre-Raphaelites saw real-existing relatives and friends in their paintings. Gone are the conventions. The artist and his model became equal creators of the work. The saleswoman who volunteered to pose could become the queen, and Lady Lilith was a woman of easy virtue.

Initially, the Pre-Raphaelites were fairly well received by the public, but then a wave of criticism fell upon them for painting completely unthinkable pictures. Critics began to laugh at them for the fact that they clumsily try to copy the style of the works of the masters of the past. What used to be pure urge has become mere imitation and imitation.

The Pre-Raphaelites received recognition after the support of a certain Ruskin. After that, their success took off. The paintings began to be snapped up and exhibited on international exhibitions. However, in spite of everything, in 1853 the brotherhood broke up. The artists were united only by their love of history, but otherwise their opinions differed. As a result, all the artists parted and pre-Raphaelism ceased to exist.

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The Pre-Raphaelites are the English artists William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), John Evret Millet (1829-96), the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82), who united in 1848 in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

It also included art critics - Dante Gabriel's brother - William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) and Frederick George Stephens (1828-1907), poet and sculptor Thomas Uvulner (1825-92), artist James Collinson (18257-81).

Aesthetic principles of the Pre-Raphaelites

The initials "PB" (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) first appeared on a painting by Hunt at the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition in 1849.

The aesthetic principles of the Pre-Raphaelites are a romantic protest against the cold academicism that dominated English painting of that time.

Their ideal of art is the work of the masters of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance (i.e., the “pre-Raphael” period) - Giotto, Fra Angelico, S. Botticelli, which attracted them as an example of a naive, direct relationship of man to nature.

The Pre-Raphaelites called for depicting nature in its diversity, using the full range of colors, in contrast to the pale greens and browns of academic artists who never left the studio. The religious spirit of pre-Raphaelite painting by the Pre-Raphaelites was opposed to individualism, godlessness of the artists of the high Renaissance and modern materialism. In this regard, they were influenced by the Oxford Movement. The moral principle affirmed by the Pre-Raphaelites found expression in religious themes ah, in the symbolic-mystical iconography.

Pre-Raphaelite Inspiring Authors

Favorite authors who inspired the Pre-Raphaelites - Dante, T. Malory, W. Shakespeare, romantic poets W. Blake, J. Keats, P. B. Shelley, perceived as aesthetes and mystics, A. Tennyson with his medieval plots and the theme of the struggle of the spiritual and sensual beginnings, and especially R. Browning with his interest in Italy, the exaltation of pre-Raphaelian art, with sharp psychological plots.

The Pre-Raphaelites were perceived in 1848-49 as dangerous, impudent revolutionaries and were sharply criticized. The art theorist John Ruskin (1819-1900), who became a friend of D. G. Rossetti, spoke in their defense. In open letters published in 1851 and 1854 in The Times, he defended them against accusations of artificial resurrection of primitive medieval painting, predilection for abstract symbolism and indifference to everything that went beyond the "beautiful".

With Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites were united by the condemnation of the prose and pragmatics of bourgeois relations, the idealization of the craft way of the Middle Ages. Later, he condemned their "aestheticism" and moved away from them. In January-April 1850, the Pre-Raphaelites published a magazine (four issues) "The Germ" with the subtitle "Reflections on the Nature of Poetry, Literature and Art"; the last two issues have been renamed: "Art and Poetry as Reflections on Nature"; its editor was W. M. Rossetti, who was also the secretary of the Pre-Raphaelites. The artists Ford Madox Brown (1821-93), Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98), Arthur Hughes (1830-1915), writer, artist, ideologist of English socialism William Morris (1834) adjoined the Pre-Raphaelites (but were not members of the brotherhood) -96), sister of D.G. and W. M. Rossetti - the poetess Christina Rossetti (1830-94), who published her poems in their magazine.

Pre-Raphaelite central figure

The central figure of the Pre-Raphaelites is D. G. Rossetti. In his poetry, focused on the duel of the spiritual and the sensual as eternally opposed to each other principles in man, the oscillation characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelites between mysticism and the glorification of sensuality, an attempt to reconcile mysticism and eroticism on the basis of the deification of the flesh, was most clearly embodied. In D. G. Rossetti, the sensual often wins over the spiritual. He loved to refer to Dante, his love for Beatrice. Dante's fascination is evident in his book of translations, The Early Italian Poets (1861). The religious and mystical beginning of Catholicism was often obscured in the perception of the Pre-Raphaelites by the purely pictorial.

The splendor of the Catholic church ritual, bizarre forms gothic architecture sometimes captivated them, regardless of the ideas embodied in it. The most consistent in expressing religious Catholic views are Hunt in painting and K. Rossetti in poetry. In 1853 the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood disintegrates. Millais went to Scotland, and when he returned, he became a commercial artist, painting commissioned portraits and sentimental paintings. Hunt went to Palestine in 1854 in search of a more realistic background for his religious paintings, and throughout his life he remained the most consistent. Uvulner went to Australia, Collinson converted to Catholicism in 1852 and joined the religious community.

The Pre-Raphaelites were connected by personal friendship and aesthetic affinity with A. Swinburne, W. Pater, O. Beardsley, O. Wilde and had a significant impact on "aestheticism" as a trend in literature and painting of the 1880s.

The word Pre-Raphaelite comes from English Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

What should one do to whom their rebellion means so much? Travel to Moscow. And if he (or rather she) is not in shape? To see their work reflected in your soul...

Coronation portrait of Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901) - the last representative of the Hanoverian dynasty on the throne of Great Britain. Born in 1819. The first name - Alexandrina - was given to her in honor of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, who was her godfather.

The social image of the era is characterized by a strict moral code (gentlemanship), which consolidated conservative values ​​and class differences.

The society was dominated by the values ​​professed by the middle class and supported by both Anglican Church, and the opinion of the bourgeois elite of society.
Sobriety, punctuality, diligence, frugality and thrift were valued even before the reign of Victoria, but it was in her era that these qualities became the dominant norm. The queen herself set an example: her life, completely subordinated to duty and family, was strikingly different from the lives of her two predecessors. Much of the aristocracy followed suit, abandoning the flashy lifestyle of the previous generation. So did the skilled part of the working class. The middle class had the belief that prosperity was the reward for virtue, and therefore the unfortunate did not deserve a better fate. Carried to the extreme, the puritanism of family life gave rise to feelings of guilt and hypocrisy.

Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792). Ato-portrait 1782.
Artist and art theorist. Organizer and President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, established in 1768.

Occupying the post of President of the Royal Academy of Arts until his death, Reynolds performed historical and mythological compositions, devoted a lot of energy to pedagogical and social activities. As an art theorist, Reynolds called for the study of the artistic heritage of the past, in particular the art of antiquity and the Renaissance. Adhering to views close to classicism, Reynolds at the same time emphasized the special importance of imagination and feeling, thus anticipating the aesthetics of romanticism.

Joshua Reynolds. "Cupid untying the girdle of Venus". 1788. Collection of the Hermitage. Saint Petersburg.

In 1749, Reynolds went to Italy, where he studied the works of the great masters, mainly Titian, Correggio, Raphael and Michelangelo. On his return to London, in 1752, he soon made a great name for himself as an extraordinarily skillful portrait painter, and rose to a high position among English painters.

Many of Reynolds's works have lost their original luster of colors and cracked due to the fact that, while performing them, he tried to use other substances instead of oil, such as bitumen.

William Holman Hunt. "Fishing boats on a moonlit night".
The Pre-Raphaelites, in contrast to the academics, abandoned the "cabinet" painting and began to paint in nature ...

The Pre-Raphaelite Society was founded in 1848 by three young artists: William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John Everett Milles. The challenge was already in the very name of the group: “Pre-Raphaelites” means “before Raphael”. “Your academic art, gentlemen professors, with sugary Raphael as a guide, is outdated and insincere. We take an example from those painters who lived before him, ”the Pre-Raphaelites seemed to declare with their name.

Youth rebellion against academic painting is not uncommon. In Russia, the society of the Wanderers arose in exactly the same way. However, Russian artists, in protest against official art, usually wrote melancholic genre paintings impregnated with accusatory pathos. The British, on the other hand, worshiped simplicity, beauty, the Renaissance.

"Madonna and Child". Fra Filippo Lippi (1406 - 1469).
Florentine painter, one of the most prominent masters of the Early Renaissance. That is one of the role models for the Pre-Raphaelites (what purity of colors ...).

There is so much sincerity, enthusiasm for life, humanity and a subtle understanding of beauty in the figures painted by Lippi that they make an irresistible impression, although sometimes they directly contradict the requirements of church painting. His Madonnas are charming innocent girls or tenderly loving young mothers; his babies - Christs and angels - are lovely real children, bursting with health and fun. The dignity of his painting is elevated by a strong, brilliant, vital color and a cheerful landscape or elegant architectural motifs that make up the scenery.

"Madonna and Child Surrounded by Angels". Sandro Botticelli (1445 - 1510). Great Italian painter, representative of the Florentine school of painting. That is one of the role models for the Pre-Raphaelites (as a linear drawing is refined,)

The animation of the landscape, the fragile beauty of the figures, the musicality of light, quivering lines, the transparency of cold, refined, as if woven from reflexes, colors create an atmosphere of dreaminess, light lyrical sadness.

The composition, which has acquired classical harmony, is enriched by a whimsical play of linear rhythms. In a number of Botticelli's works of the 1480s, a hint of anxiety, vague anxiety, slips through.

"Annunciation". Fra Beato Angelico. About 1426.
That is an altar image in a carved gilded frame the height of a man, painted in tempera on a wooden board.
That is one of the role models for the Pre-Raphaelites, perfect in everything ...

The action takes place under a portico that opens onto the garden. Portico columns visually divide the central panel into three parts. On the right is the Virgin Mary. In front of her is the bowed Archangel Gabriel. In the background, you can see the entrance to Mary's room. God the Father is depicted in a sculptural medallion above the central column. On the left is a view of Eden depicting a biblical episode: the Archangel Michael expels Adam and Eve from paradise after their fall into sin.

The combination of the Old Testament episode with the New Testament turns Mary into a “new Eve”, devoid of the shortcomings of the progenitor.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Self-portrait.
Born in 1828 in London. At the age of five, he composed a drama, at 13 - a dramatic story, at 15 - they began to print it. At the age of 16 he entered the drawing school, then - the Academy of Painting ...

The father of the future artist - a former curator of the Bourbon Museum in Naples - belonged to the Carbonari society, who took part in the uprising of 1820, which, after the betrayal of King Ferdinand, was suppressed by Austrian troops. In London, Gabriele Rossetti (father) was a professor at King's College. IN free time he was engaged in compiling the Analytical Commentary on Dante's Divine Comedy. Mother - nee Mary Polidori - was the daughter of the famous translator Milton. They passed on their literary passions to their children.

In honor of Dante, the son was named. The eldest daughter - Maria Francesca - wrote the book "Shadow of Dante". The youngest - Christina - became a famous English poetess. The youngest son, William Michael, is a literary critic and biographer of his brother.

"Servant of the Lord" Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 1849-1850.
Written upon joining the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The canvas depicts the "Annunciation", made with deviations from the Christian canon.

The masters of the Italian Renaissance portrayed the 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, embarrassed and frightened by the news brought to her by the archangel Gabriel. This unusual approach, which infuriated many art lovers, was consistent with the intention of the Pre-Raphaelites to paint pictures 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, Rossetti was suspected of sympathy for the papacy.

"Education of the Virgin", D. G. Rossetti 1848-1849,
Mother of God, parents - the righteous Joachim and Anna, an Angel with a lily in a jug, a stack of books and a rod in the foreground.
The Mother of God is written from her sister, and St. Anna is from the artist's mother.

Maria is working on the purple yarn for the temple curtain. That is a symbol of the upcoming “spinning” of the infant body of Jesus Christ from the “purple” of maternal blood in the womb of Mary. As we have seen, work on the yarn continues when the Annunciation takes place.

John Everett Milles. "Portrait of John Ruskin", 1854,
Ruskin contemplates the waterfall thoughtfully. The very accurately drawn rocks and water of the stream reflect the interest and love that Ruskin had for nature.

in religious and symbolic motifs young Pre-Raphaelite artists, the famous literary and art critic and the poet, art historian and theorist, painter and social reformer John Ruskin saw an important discovery. He proposed a set of unshakable rules with a call to study nature, use the achievements of science and imitate the masters of the trecento.

Thanks to his support, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood quickly gained recognition. The Pre-Raphaelites raised the bar for the quality of painting, stepped over the academic traditions of the Victorian era, returning to nature, the true and simple criterion of beauty.

In 1840, at the age of 11, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts, becoming the youngest student in its history. I studied at the academy for six years. In 1843 he received a silver medal for drawing. By the age of fifteen, he already had an excellent command of the brush.

John Everett Millais was the youngest of the brilliant trio and was better than others in various painting techniques. Carried away by Rossetti's poetic fantasies and Hunt's theoretical reasoning, he was the first to put into practice the "pre-Raphaelite" method of writing, reminiscent of fresco painting.

Milles paints with bright colors on damp white ground, does not use professional sitters and tries to be extremely reliable in depicting the material world.

The painting is based on a poem by John Keats, who in turn was inspired by one of the plots of Boccaccio's Decameron. On the right, with a glass in hand, is Rossetti.

This is a love story that broke out between Isabella and Lorenzo, a servant in the house where Isabella lived with her rich and arrogant brothers. When they found out about their relationship, they decided to secretly kill the young man in order to save his sister from shame. Isabella did not know anything about the fate of Lorenzo and was very sad.

One night, the spirit of Lorenzo appeared to the girl and indicated where the brothers buried his body. Isabella went there, dug up her lover's head and hid it in a pot of basil. When the brothers found out what exactly was stored in the pot, they, fearing punishment, stole it from their sister and fled. And Isabella died of grief and longing.

The plot was very popular in painting. The Pre-Raphaelites had a special love for him.

John Everett Milles. "Isabel". 1848–1849 Canvas, oil.
The painting is based on a poem by John Keats, who in turn was inspired by one of the plots of Boccaccio's Decameron. Quote from Keats...

Vassal of love - young Lorenzo,
Beautiful, ingenuous Isabella!
Is it possible that under the roof of one
Love did not take possession of their hearts;
Is it possible that at the daily meal
Their eyes did not meet every now and then;
So that they are in the middle of the night, in silence,
They didn’t dream of each other in a dream! ***
So the brothers, guessing everything,
That Lorenzo is full of passion for their sister
And that she is not cold to him,
They told each other about the misfortune,
Gasping with anger, because
That Isabella finds happiness with him,
And for her they need a different husband:
With olive groves, with a treasury.

1850. Milles depicted the young Christ in the guise of a simple boy in the squalid interior of a carpentry workshop, clearly
not experiencing (according to critics) respect for religion and the heritage of the masters.

They say that Milles came up with the plot for this picture in the summer of 1848 during a church sermon. The canvas depicts little Jesus in the workshop of his father Joseph (the painting has a second name - "Christ in the carpentry workshop"). Jesus had just cut his hand with a nail, which can be understood as a premonition of the future crucifixion. Miless made his first sketches in November 1849, started painting in December, and finished the painting in April 1850. A month later, the artist presented it to the summer exhibition of the Royal Academy - and dissatisfied critics fell upon him.

The religious scene, unusually presented by Milles, was considered by many to be too crude and almost blasphemous. Meanwhile, this picture is still considered one of the most significant works of Milles.

John Everett Milles. "Christ in the house of his parents." 1850. A review by Dickens published in The Times newspaper was capable of sweeping off the face of the earth the artists who had just declared themselves ...

In the article, Dickens wrote that Jesus appeared as "a repulsive, restless, red-haired, cry-baby in a nightgown who seems to have just climbed out of a nearby ditch." Of Mary, Dickens said that she was written "terribly ugly."

In similar terms, Milles's painting was also commented on by The Times newspaper, which called it "disgusting". According to the critic, "the nauseatingly depressing details of the carpentry workshop obscure the really important elements of the picture."

John Everett Milles. "Christ in the house of his parents."
1850. The boy Christ hurt his hand, and his cousin (the future John the Baptist) carries water to wash the wound. The blood dripping on Christ's leg serves as an omen of the Crucifixion.

The artist followed pre-Raphaelite principles of rigorous realism and immediate emotional appeal when he depicted the Holy Family as a family of poor English laborers at work in Joseph's carpenter's shop. The emaciated Virgin Mary was especially indignant because she was usually depicted as an attractive young blonde.

On Milles, who spent long days in a carpentry workshop in an attempt to capture all the details of the work of the masters, the criticism made a deafening impression. He got lost...

John Everett Milles. "Marianna", 1851, Private collection,
The painting is based on Shakespeare's play "Measure for Measure"
in it, Marianne must marry Angelo, who rejects her, since the dowry of the heroine was lost
in a shipwreck.

One can see the desire for realism, there is no “prettyness”, Mariana stands in an uncomfortable, ugly pose, which conveys her tedious, long wait. All the decoration of the room with stained-glass windows and walls upholstered in velvet, in the taste of the Victorian era. Excellent details, as well as the plot of the picture, reflect the main features of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The girl leads a lonely life, still yearning for her lover..

Ah, take those lips
What they swore to me so sweetly
And the eyes that are in the dark
I was lit by a false sun;
But return the seal of love, the seal of love
Kisses all mine, all mine!

John Everett Milles. "Marianne", 1851, Fragment.
Private collection, Marianne painted with Elizabeth Siddal.

When Milles' painting first appeared in an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, it was accompanied by a line from Alfred Tennyson's poem "Marian": "He will not come," she said.

John Everett Milles. "Ophelia". 1852. London, Tate Gallery, The artist strives to depict the scene as close as possible to Shakespeare's description and extremely naturalistic. From nature, both the landscape and Ophelia immersed in water are written.

Milles began painting this picture at the age of 22, like many young people of his age, he literally raved about Shakespeare's immortal play. And on the canvas he tried to convey as accurately as possible all the nuances described by the playwright.

The most difficult thing for Milles in creating this picture was to depict a female figure half submerged in water. It was quite dangerous to paint it from nature, but the technical skill of the artist allowed him to perform a clever trick: to paint water in the open air (working in nature has gradually become part of the practice of painters since the 1840s, when oil paints in metal tubes), and the figure in his workshop.

In the painting, Ophelia is depicted immediately after falling into the river, when she “thought to hang her wreaths on willow branches.” She sings sorrowful songs, half submerged in water...

Millais reproduced the scene described by the Queen, Hamlet's mother. She describes the incident as if it were an accident:

Where the willow grows above the water, bathing
Silvery foliage in the water, she
Came there in fancy garlands
From buttercup, nettle and chamomile,
And those flowers that roughly names
The people, and the girls call with their fingers
Pokoinikov. She has her wreaths
Hang thought on willow branches,
But the branch is broken. In a weeping stream
With flowers, the poor fell. Dress,
Spreading wide across the water,
She was held like a mermaid.

John Everett Milles. "Ophelia". 1852. London, Tate Gallery.
Her posture - open arms and a gaze fixed on the sky - evokes associations with the Crucifixion of Christ, and has also often been interpreted as erotic.

It is also known that Milles specially bought an old dress for Elizabeth Siddal in an antique shop so that she posed in it. The dress cost Milla four pounds. In March 1852, he wrote: "Today I purchased a truly luxurious antique women's dress, decorated with floral embroidery - and I'm going to use it in" Ophelia ""

John Everett Milles. "Ophelia". 1852. London, Tate Gallery.
Stream and flowers Milles painted from nature. The flowers depicted in the picture with stunning botanical accuracy also have a symbolic meaning ...

According to the language of flowers, buttercups are a symbol of ingratitude or infantilism, a weeping willow bent over a girl is a symbol of rejected love, nettles mean pain, daisy flowers are about right hand symbolize innocence. Plakun-grass in the upper right corner of the picture - "the fingers of the dead." Roses are traditionally a symbol of love and beauty, in addition, one of the heroes calls Ophelia "the rose of May"; meadowsweet in the left corner may express the meaninglessness of Ophelia's death; forget-me-nots growing on the shore - a symbol of fidelity; the scarlet and poppy-like adonis floating near the right hand symbolizes grief.

John Everett Milles. "Ophelia". 1852. London, Tate Gallery.
And although death is inevitable, time seems to have stopped in the picture. Millet managed to capture the moment that passes between life and death.

Critic John Ruskin noted that “this is the most beautiful English landscape; riddled with grief."

My associations are inevitable for me... In Solaris, Andrei Tarkovsky, who I have always loved, with the help of frozen algae in flowing water, conveyed the feeling of "time blurred in the realities" - belonging neither to the Past, nor to the Future, nor, moreover, to the Present, only to Eternity, which is visible only in the imagination.

John Everett Milles. "Ophelia". 1852. London, Tate Gallery.
The girl slowly plunges into the water against the backdrop of a bright, blooming nature, her face shows neither panic nor despair. Ophelia is written with Elizabeth Siddal...

"Ophelia" shocked the audience and brought the author well-deserved fame. After Ophelia, the Royal Academy of Arts, whose canons he refuted with previous works, accepts Milles as a member. The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood disintegrates, and the artist returns to the academic style of painting, in which nothing remains of the former Pre-Raphaelite quests.

William Holman Hunt. Self-portrait. 1857.
Hunt was one of three students of the Royal Academy of Arts who founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Hunt was the only one who remained true to the end to the doctrine of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and preserved their pictorial ideals until his death. Hunt is also the author of the autobiographies Pre-Raphaelite and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which aim to provide accurate information about the origins of the Brotherhood and its members.

William Holman Hunt. "A Converted Briton Family Saves a Christian Missionary from Druid Persecution." 1849

This is perhaps the most “medieval” work of Hunt, where the composition, poses and division into plans resemble the works of artists of the early Italian Renaissance, and the era itself depicted - British antiquity - is close to the area of ​​​​interest of the rest of the Pre-Raphaelites.

William Holman Hunt. "Hired shepherd". 1851.

Already next famous picture Khanta shows us not a distant era, but quite modern people Or rather, people in modern costumes. This picture refers the viewer to the Gospel, where Christ, the Good Shepherd, says: “But a hireling, not a shepherd, to whom the sheep are not his own, sees the coming wolf, and leaves the sheep, and runs; and the wolf plunders the sheep and scatters them. And the mercenary runs because he is a mercenary, and does not care about the sheep. (John 10:12-13) Here the mercenary is just busy with the fact that he “does not care about the sheep”, completely ignoring them, while they disperse in all directions and enter the field, where they clearly do not belong. The shepherdess, with whom the shepherd flirts, is also not faithful to her duty, because she feeds the lamb with green apples. From the point of view of technique and detailed elaboration, the picture is no less realistic than, for example, "Ophelia": Hunt painted the landscape completely in the open air, leaving empty spaces for the figures.

William Holman Hunt. "Our English Shores". 1852.

Hunt's landscapes seem amazing to me: everything is alive in them - distant plans and close ones, bushes and animals ...

William Holman Hunt. "A burning sunset over the sea." 1850.
William Holman Hunt. "Scapegoat". 1854.

Faithful to the pre-Raphaelite spirit of realism and closeness to nature, in 1854 Hunt went to Palestine to paint landscapes and characters from nature for his biblical paintings. In the same year, he begins his probably most amazing picture - "The Scapegoat". Here we do not see people at all: before us is only an ominous, dazzlingly bright, similar to a terrible dream salt desert (the Dead Sea, that is, the place where Sodom and Gomorrah stood, naturally, Hunt wrote it from life, like the goat itself), and in the middle of it is a tortured white goat. According to the Old Testament, the scapegoat is an animal that was chosen for the ritual of cleansing the community: the sins of all the people of the community were laid on it, and then it was driven out into the desert. For Hunt, it was a symbol of Christ, who bore the sins of all people and died for them, and in the expression of the dumb goat’s face such depths of tragic suffering shine through that Hunt never managed to reach in those of his paintings, where Christ himself and other gospel characters are actually present.

The name "Pre-Raphaelites" (eng. Pre-Raphaelites) was supposed to denote a spiritual relationship with the Florentine artists of the early Renaissance, that is, the 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, John William Waterhouse.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The first stage in the development of Pre-Raphaelism was the emergence of the so-called "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood", which initially consisted of seven "brothers": J. E. Millet, Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his younger brother Michael Rossetti, Thomas Woolner and painters Stevens and James Collinson.

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

The history of the Brotherhood begins in 1848, when at the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, students of the Academy met Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had previously seen Hunt's work and admired them. Hunt helps Rossetti complete the painting Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848-49), which was exhibited in 1849, and he also 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 found themselves sharing 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 academism).

Augustus Egga - Past and Present, 1837

This is how the idea of ​​​​creating a secret society called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born - a society that is in opposition to official artistic movements. From the very beginning, James Collinson (a student of the Academy and fiance of Christina Rossetti), the sculptor and poet Thomas Woolner, a young nineteen-year-old artist and later critic Frederick Stevens, and Rossetti's younger brother William Rossetti, who followed in the footsteps of his older brother entered art school, were also invited to the group from the very beginning. but he did not show a special vocation for art and, in the end, became a famous art critic and writer. Madox Brown was close to the German Nazarenes, so he, sharing the ideas of the Brotherhood, refused to join the group.

In Rossetti's painting "The Youth of the Virgin Mary", three conditional letters P. R. B. (eng. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) first appear, the same initials marked "Isabella" by Millet and "Rienzi" (eng. Rienzi) by Hunt. Members of the Brotherhood also created their own magazine, called The Sprout, although it lasted only from January to April 1850. Its editor was William Michael Rossetti (brother of Dante Gabriel Rossetti).

Pre-Raphaelites and academicism

Before the advent of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the development of British art was determined mainly by the activities of the Royal Academy of Arts. Like any other official institution, it was very jealous and cautious about innovations, while maintaining the traditions of academicism. Hunt, Millais and Rossetti stated in the Rostok magazine that they did not want to depict people and nature as abstractly beautiful, and events far from reality, and, finally, they were tired of the conventionality of official, "exemplary" mythological, historical and religious works.

D. G. Rossetti - The Holy Grail, 1860

The Pre-Raphaelites abandoned the academic principles of work and believed that everything must be written from life. They chose friends or relatives as models. So, for example, in the painting "Youth of the Virgin Mary" Rossetti depicted his mother and sister Christina, and looking at the painting "Isabella", contemporaries recognized Millet's friends and acquaintances from the Brotherhood. He, during the creation of the painting "Ophelia", forced Elizabeth Siddal to lie in a filled bath for several hours. It was winter, so Siddal caught a bad cold and later sent Milla a £50 doctor's bill.

D. E. Millais - Ophelia, 1852

Moreover, the Pre-Raphaelites changed the relationship between the artist and the model - they became equal partners. If the heroes of Reynolds' paintings are almost always dressed according to their social status, then Rossetti could draw a queen from a saleswoman, a goddess from a groom's daughter. The prostitute Fanny Cornforth posed for him for the painting "Lady Lilith".

D. G. Rossetti - Lady Lilith, 1868

Members of the Brotherhood have been irritated from the beginning by the influence on contemporary art of such artists as Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Wilkie and Benjamin Haydon. They even nicknamed Sir Joshua (the president of the Academy of Arts) “Sir Slosh” (from the English slosh - “to spank in the mud”) for his sloppy painting technique and style, which they considered to be 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 painters of the Quattrocento era. They abandoned "armchair" painting and began to paint in nature, and also made changes to the traditional painting technique. On a primed canvas, the Pre-Raphaelites outlined the composition, applied a layer of white and removed oil from it with blotting paper, and then wrote over the white with translucent paints. The chosen technique made it possible to achieve bright, fresh tones and proved to be so durable that their works have been preserved in their original form to this day.

Fighting criticism

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

D. E. Millais - Christ in the parental home, 1850

Public opinion was also attacked by Rossetti's painting "The Annunciation", made with deviations from the Christian canon. At an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1850, Rossetti, Hunt and Millais failed to sell a single painting. In a review published in the weekly Ateneum, critic Frank Stone wrote:

“Ignoring everything great that was created by the old masters, this school, to which Rossetti belongs, trudges with uncertain steps towards its early predecessors. This is an archeology devoid of any usefulness and turned into doctrinairism. People belonging to this school claim to follow the truth and simplicity of nature. In fact, they slavishly imitate artistic ineptitude."

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

The situation was saved to some extent by John Ruskin, an influential art historian and art critic in England. Although he was only thirty-two years old in 1850, he was already the author of a wide range of 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 any of the Brotherhood. He proclaimed that their work could "form the foundation of an art school greater than anything the world had known for the previous 300 years." In addition, Ruskin bought many of the paintings of Gabriel Rossetti, which supported him financially, and took Millet under his wing, in whom he immediately saw an outstanding talent.

John Ruskin and his influence

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

The English critic John Ruskin put the Pre-Raphaelite ideas about art in order, arranging them into a logical system. Among his works, the most famous are Fiction: Fair and Foul, The Art of England, Modern Painters. He is also the author of the article "Pre-Raphaelitism" (Eng. Pre-Raphaelitism), published in 1851.

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

M. Brown - Farewell to England, 1855

Ruskin also proclaimed the “principle of fidelity to Nature”: “Isn’t it because we love our creations more than His, we value colored glasses, and not bright clouds ... And, making fonts and erecting columns in honor of Him ... we imagine that we will be forgiven our shameful neglect of the hills and streams with which He endowed our habitation - the earth. Thus, art was supposed to contribute to the revival of spirituality in man, moral purity and religiosity, which also became the goal of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Ruskin owns a clear definition of the artistic goals of Pre-Raphaelism:

It is easy to control the brush and write herbs and plants with sufficient fidelity to the eye; anyone can achieve this after a few years of work. But to depict among herbs and plants the secrets of creation and combinations with which nature speaks to our understanding, to convey the gentle bend 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 it to the unthinking and unseeing - such is appointment of the artist.

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: "More than any other reader, I felt that the book was written especially for me." Defining his approach to work, Hunt also noted that it was important for him to start from the subject, "and not only because there is a charm of completeness of the subject, but in order to understand the principles of design that exist in Nature."

Decay

After Pre-Raphaelism received the support of Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites were recognized and loved, they were given the right to "citizenship" in art, they become fashionable and receive a more favorable reception at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, they are successful at the World Exhibition of 1855 in Paris.

Arthur Hughes - April Love, 1855-1856

In addition to the already mentioned Madox Brown, the Pre-Raphaelite style was also interested in Arthur Hughes (best known for the painting April Love, 1855-1856), Henry Wallis, Robert Braithwaite Martineau, William Windus ) and others.

D.E. Millais - Huguenot, 1852

However, the Brotherhood is falling apart. Apart from a young revolutionary romantic spirit and a fascination with the Middle Ages, there was little that united these people, and of the early Pre-Raphaelites, only Holman Hunt remained true to the doctrine of the Brotherhood. When Millais became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1853, Rossetti declared this event the end of the Brotherhood. “The Round Table is now dissolved,” concludes Rossetti. Gradually, the rest of the members leave. Holman Hunt, for example, went to the Middle East, Rossetti himself, instead of landscapes or religious themes, became interested in literature and created many works on Shakespeare and Dante.

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

Further development of Pre-Raphaelitism

In 1856, Rossetti met with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Burne-Jones was fascinated by Rossetti's The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice, and he and Morris subsequently asked to be his apprentice. Burne-Jones spent whole days at Rossetti's studio, with Morris joining on weekends.

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

Thus begins a new stage in the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the main idea of ​​which is aestheticism, stylization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius.] All these features are inherent in the work of Rossetti, who at first was the leader of the movement. As artist Val Princep later wrote, Rossetti “was the planet around which we revolved. We even copied his manner of speaking.” However, Rossetti's health (including mental health) is deteriorating, and gradually Edward Burne-Jones, whose works are made in the style of the early Pre-Raphaelites, takes the lead. He became extraordinarily popular and had a great influence on such painters as William Waterhouse, Bayam Shaw, Cadogan Cooper, his influence is also noticeable in the works of Aubrey Beardsley and other illustrators of the 1890s. In 1889, at the World Exhibition in Paris, he received the Order of the Legion of Honor for the painting "King Cofetua and the Beggar Woman".

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

Among the late Pre-Raphaelites, one can also distinguish such painters as Simeon Solomon (born Simeon Solomon) and Evelyn de Morgan (Evelyn de Morgan), as well as illustrators Henry Ford (Henry Justice Ford) and Evelyn Paul (Evelyn Paul).

Henry Ford - Stepmother Turning Her Brothers Into Swans, 1894

Evelyn Paul - Divine Comedy

"Arts and Crafts"

Pre-Raphaelitism at this time penetrates into all aspects of life: furniture, decorative arts, architecture, interior decoration, book design, illustrations.

William Morris is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of decorative art. Art XIX century. He founded the Arts and Crafts Movement, the main idea of ​​which was the return to manual craftsmanship as an ideal of applied art, as well as the elevation to the rank of full-fledged arts of printing, casting, engraving. This movement, which was picked up by Walter Crane, Macintosh, Nelson Dawson, Edwin Lutyens, Wright and others, subsequently manifested itself in English and American architecture, interior design, landscape design.

Poetry

Most of the Pre-Raphaelites were engaged in poetry, but, according to many critics, it is precisely the late period of the development of Pre-Raphaelism that it has value. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his sister Christina Rossetti, George Meredith, William Morris and Algernon Swinburne left a significant mark on English literature, but the greatest contribution was made by Rossetti, captured by the poems of the Italian Renaissance and especially the works of Dante. The main lyrical achievement of Rossetti is the cycle of sonnets "The House of Life" (The House of Life). Christina Rossetti was also a famous poet. Rossetti's lover, Elizabeth Siddal, was also engaged in poetry, whose works remained unpublished during her lifetime. William Morris was not only a recognized master of stained glass, but also led an active literary activity including writing many poems. His first collection, The Defense of Guinevere and Other Poems, was published in 1858, when the author was 24 years old.

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

William Yeats - He Who Dreamed of Fairyland (1893)

He lingered in the market at Dromachere,
I considered myself in a foreign country native,
Dreamed of loving while the earth is behind him
Did not 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 unearthly island,
Where are the people above the embroidered wave
Under the woven canopy of fixed crowns
Love tame the passage of time.
And he lost his happiness and peace.

He wandered the sands for a long time in Lissadell
And in my dreams I saw how he would live,
Having gained wealth and honor,
Until the bones decayed in the grave;
But from a random puddle a worm
Sang to him with a marsh gray throat,
That somewhere in the distance at the will of the sweet
Everyone dances from sonorous joy
Under the gold and silver of heaven;
When suddenly there is silence
The fruits radiate the sun and the moon.

He realized that he dreamed of useless things.

He thought at the well in Skanavin,
What is the fury of the heart to the mocking light
Will enter the rumor around for many years,
When the flesh will sink in the earthly abyss;
But then the weed sang to him about
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 a night
Lovers can help forever.
And his anger dissipated without a trace.

He slept under the smoky cliff at Lugnagoll;
It would seem, now, in the vale of sleep,
When the earth took its toll,
He could forget about the homeless share.
But will the worms stop howling
Weaving rings around his bones,
That God lays his fingers on heaven,
To envelop with a gentle radiance
Dancers over a thoughtless wave?
Why dream, while the Lord's ardor
Happy love is not scorched?
He did not find peace even in the grave.

The famous poet Algernon Swinburne, who became famous for his bold experiments in versification, was also a playwright and literary critic. Swinburne dedicated his first drama The Queen Mother and Rosamond, written in 1860, to Rossetti, with whom he had friendly relations. However, although Swinburne has declared his adherence to the principles of Pre-Raphaelism, he certainly goes beyond this direction.

Publishing

In 1890, William Morris organized the Kelmscott Press, in which, together with Burne-Jones, he published several books. This period is called the culmination of the life of William Morris. Based on the traditions of medieval scribes, Morris, like the English graphic artist William Blake, tried to find a unified style for the design of the book's page, its title page and binding. Morris's best publication was The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer; the fields are decorated with climbing plants, the text is enlivened by miniature screensavers and ornamented capital letters. As Duncan Robinson wrote,

To the modern reader, accustomed to the simple and functional types 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 becomes the most important examples of the decorative art of the 19th century; everything is done 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. Published by William Morris

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

aesthetic movement

In the late 50s, when the paths of Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites diverge, there is a need for new aesthetic ideas and new theorists who form these ideas. This theorist was an art historian and literary critic Walter Pater. Walter Horatio Pater. Walter Pater believed that the main thing in art is the immediacy of individual perception, therefore art should cultivate every moment of experiencing life: “Art gives us nothing but awareness of the highest value of each passing moment and the preservation of all of them.” To a large extent, through Pater, the ideas of “art for art’s sake”, drawn from Theophile Gauthier, Charles Baudelaire, are transformed into the concept of aestheticism (English Aesthetic movement), which is spreading among English artists and poets: Whistler, Swinburne, Rosseti, Wilde. Oscar Wilde also had a strong influence on the development of the aesthetic movement (including Rossetti's later work), being personally acquainted with both Holman Hunt and Burne-Jones. He, like many of his peers, read the books of Pater and Ruskin, and Wilde's aestheticism largely grew out of Pre-Raphaelism, which carried a charge of sharp criticism. modern society in terms of beauty. Oscar Wilde wrote that “aesthetics is higher than criticism”, which considers art to be the highest reality, and life a kind of fiction: “I write because writing for me is the highest artistic pleasure. If my work is liked by a select few, I am happy about it. If not, I'm not upset." The Pre-Raphaelites were also fond of Keats's poetry and fully accepted his aesthetic formula which said that "beauty is the only truth."

Plots

W. H. Hunt - Awakened modesty, 1853

At first, the Pre-Raphaelites preferred gospel subjects, and they avoided ecclesiastical nature in painting and interpreted the gospel symbolically, emphasizing not the historical fidelity of the depicted gospel episodes, but their internal philosophical sense. So, for example, in Hunt's The Light of Peace, in the form of the Savior with a bright lamp in his hands, the mysterious divine light of faith is depicted, striving to penetrate into closed human hearts, just as Christ knocks at the door of a human dwelling.

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

The Pre-Raphaelites draw attention to the theme of social inequality in the Victorian era, emigration (the work of Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes), the downgraded position of women (Rossetti), Holman Hunt even touched on the topic of prostitution in his painting The Awakening Conscience (eng. The Awakening Conscience, 1853 .). In the picture, we see a fallen woman who suddenly realized that she was sinning, and, forgetting about her lover, is freed from his arms, as if having heard some kind of call through an open window. The man does not understand her spiritual impulses and continues to play the piano. Here the Pre-Raphaelites were not pioneers, they were anticipated by Richard Redgrave with his famous painting The Governess (1844).

R. Redgrave - Governess, 1844

And later, in the 40s, Redgrave created many similar works dedicated to the exploitation of women.

D. G. Rossetti - Proserpina, 1874

The Pre-Raphaelites were engaged in historical themes, achieving the greatest accuracy in depicting actual details; turned to the works of classical poetry and literature, to the work of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, John Keats. They idealized the Middle Ages, loved medieval romance and mysticism.

Women's images

The Pre-Raphaelites created in the visual arts new type female beauty- aloof, calm, mysterious, which Art Nouveau artists would later develop. The woman on the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites is a medieval image of ideal beauty and femininity, she is admired and worshipped. This is especially noticeable in Rossetti, who admired beauty and mystery, as well as in Arthur Hughes, Millais, Burne-Jones. Mystical, fatal beauty, la femme fatale later found expression in William Waterhouse. In this regard, the painting "The Lady of Shalotte" (1888), which is still one of the most popular exhibits of the Tate Gallery, can be called a landmark. 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 stay in a tower, isolated from the outside world, and at the very moment when she decides to escape, she signs her own death warrant.

W. Waterhouse - The Lady of Shalott, 1888

Image tragic love was attractive to the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers: at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, more than fifty paintings were created on the theme of “Lady of Shalott”, and the title of the poem turned into an idiom. The Pre-Raphaelites were attracted, in particular, by such themes as spiritual purity and tragic love, unrequited love, an unattainable girl, a woman dying for love, marked by shame or a curse, and a dead woman of extraordinary beauty.

W. Waterhouse - Ophelia, 1894

The Victorian concept of femininity was revised. For example, in "Ophelia" by Arthur Hughes or a series of paintings "Past and Present" (English Past and Present, 1837-1860) by Augustus Egg, a woman is shown as a person capable of experiencing sexual desire and passion, often leading to an untimely death. Augustus Egg created a series of works that show how the family hearth is destroyed after the mother's adultery is revealed. In the first picture, the woman is lying on the floor, her face buried in the carpet, in a pose of complete despair, and the bracelets on her hands resemble handcuffs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti uses the figure of Proserpina from ancient Greek and Roman mythology: a young woman stolen by Pluto in underworld and desperately longing to return to earth. She eats only a few pomegranate seeds, but a small piece of food is enough for a person to remain forever in the underworld. Proserpina Rossetti is not just beautiful woman with a thoughtful look. She is very feminine and sensual, and the pomegranate in her hands is a symbol of passion and temptation to which she succumbed.

W. Waterhouse - "Shadows haunt me," said the Lady of Shalott, 1911

One of the main themes in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites is a seduced woman, destroyed by unrequited love, betrayed by her beloved, a victim of tragic love. Most of the paintings explicitly or implicitly present a man responsible for the fall of a woman. As an example, Hunt's "Awakened Shame" or Millet's painting "Marian" can be cited.

D.E. Millais - Mariana, 1851

Similar themes can be traced in poetry: in The Defense of Guenevere by William Morris, in Christina Rossetti's poem "Quick Love" (Eng. Light Love, 1856), in Rossetti's poem "Jenny" (1870), where a fallen woman is shown, a prostitute who is completely unconcerned about her position and even enjoys sexual freedom.

Scenery

W. H. Hunt - English Shores, 1852

Holman Hunt, Millais, Madox Brown designed the landscape. The painters William Dyce, Thomas Seddon, John Brett also enjoyed some fame. The landscape painters of this school are especially famous for their depiction of clouds, which they inherited from their famous predecessor, William Turner. They tried to write out the landscape with maximum certainty. Hunt expressed his thoughts this way: "I want to paint a landscape ... depicting every detail that I can see." And about the painting by Millet "Autumn Leaves" Ruskin said: "For the first time, twilight is depicted so perfectly."

D.E. Millais - Autumn Leaves, 1856

Painters made scrupulous studies of tones from nature, reproducing them as brightly and distinctly as possible. This microscopic work required great patience and labor; in their letters or diaries, the Pre-Raphaelites complained about the need to stand for hours under the hot sun, rain, wind, in order to draw, at times, a very small segment of the picture. For these reasons, the Pre-Raphaelite landscape was not widely used, and then it was replaced by Impressionism.

Lifestyle

Pre-Raphaelitism is a cultural style that penetrated the lives of its creators and to some extent determined this life. The Pre-Raphaelites lived in the environment they created and made such an environment extremely fashionable. As Andrea Rose notes in her book, at the end of the 19th century, “fidelity to nature gives way to fidelity to image. The image becomes recognizable and therefore quite ready for the market.”

William Morris - Queen Ginevra, 1858

The American writer Henry James, in a letter dated March 1969, told Sister Alice about his visit to the Morrises.

“Yesterday, my dear sister,” writes James, “was a kind of apotheosis for me, as I spent most of this day in 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 windows, faience tiles, medieval tapestries and church embroidery - in general, everything pre-Raphaelite, ancient, 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 outsell the greatest luxury items), but because his factory cannot be of too much importance. But everything that he has created is amazing and excellent ... he is also helped by his wife and young 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 who can be found constantly in the paintings of this painter:

“Oh, my dear, what a woman! She is wonderful in everything. Imagine a tall, thin woman, in a long dress of muted purple fabric, of natural matter to the last lace, with a mop of curly black hair falling in large waves over her temples, a small and pale face, large dark holes, deep and quite Swinburne, with thick black curved eyebrows... A high open neck in pearls, and in the end - perfection itself. Her portrait hung on the wall almost life size Rossetti's brushes, so strange and unreal that if you saw him, you would take for a painful vision, but of extraordinary similarity and fidelity to features. After dinner... Morris read us one of his unpublished poems... and his wife, suffering from a toothache, was resting on the sofa, with a handkerchief to her face. It seemed to me that there was something fantastic and remote from our real life in this scene: Morris reading a legend of wonders and horrors in smooth antique meter (it was the story of Bellerophon), all around us is the picturesque second-hand furniture of the apartment (every object is a sample of something), and, in the corner, this gloomy woman, silent and medieval with his medieval toothache."

Pre-Raphaelites were surrounded by women of different social status, lovers, models. One journalist writes about them like this: "... women without crinolines, with flowing hair ... unusual, like a feverish dream, in which magnificent and fantastic images slowly move."

Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived in a refined and bohemian atmosphere, and his eccentric image itself became part of the Pre-Raphaelite legend: Rossetti lived the most different people, including poet Algernon Swinburne, writer George Meredith. Models succeeded one another, some of them became Rossetti's mistresses, the vulgar and stingy Fanny Cornforth is especially famous. Rossetti's house was full of antiques, antique furniture, Chinese porcelain and other knick-knacks, which he bought in junk shops. The garden was inhabited by owls, wombats, kangaroos, parrots, peacocks, at one time even a bull lived there, whose eyes reminded Rossetti of the eyes of his beloved Jane Morris.

Significance of Pre-Raphaelitism

Pre-Raphaelitism as artistic direction widely known and popular in the UK. It is also called the first British movement to achieve world fame, however, among researchers, the value is estimated in different ways: from a revolution in art to pure innovation in painting technique. There is an opinion that the movement began with an attempt to update painting, and later had a great influence on the development of literature and the entire English culture as a whole. According to Literary Encyclopedia, in view of their refined aristocracy, retrospection and contemplation, their work had little effect on the broad masses.

Despite the apparent appeal to the past, the Pre-Raphaelites contributed to the establishment of the Art Nouveau style in the visual arts, moreover, they are considered the forerunners of the Symbolists, sometimes even identifying both. For example, that the exhibition "Symbolism in Europe", moving from November 1975 to July 1976 from Rotterdam via Brussels and Baden-Baden to Paris, took 1848 as the starting date - the year the Brotherhood was founded. Pre-Raphaelite poetry left its mark on the French symbolists Verlaine and Mallarmé, and painting on such artists as Aubrey Beardsley, Waterhouse, and lesser known ones like Edward Hughes or Calderon. Some even note the influence of Pre-Raphaelite painting on English hippies, and Burne-Jones on the young Tolkien. Interestingly, in his youth, Tolkien, who together with friends organized the semi-secret society "Tea Club", compared them with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Some Pre-Raphaelite Works

D.E. Millais - Cherry Ripe, 1879

D.E. Millais - Lorenzo and Isabella, 1849

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

D.E. Millais - Black Brunswick Hussars, 1860

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

D. G. Rossetti - Annunciation, 1850

W.Watrehouse - Gilias and the Nymphs, 1896

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

W.H. Hunt - Hired Shepherd, 1851

Pre-Raphaelite artists (from Latin prae - forward, and the name "Raphael"), these are representatives of the direction in English poetry and painting of the mid-19th century, formed to combat established academic traditions, conventions and imitation of classical models. The main representatives of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and John Everett Millais (1829-1896) - considered admirable the paintings of early Renaissance artists who worked before Raphael. The Pre-Raphaelites considered Perugino, Fra Angelico and Giovanni Bellini worthy of imitation.

Pre-Raphaelite artists against academicism

In the middle of the 19th century, the academic school in English painting was the leading one. In a developed industrial society, a high level of performance technique was perceived as a guarantee of quality. Therefore, the work of the students of the academy was quite successful and in demand by the English society. But, the stability of English painting has already grown into rigidity, bogged down in conventions and repetitions. And the summer exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts every year became more and more predictable. The Royal Academy of Arts preserved the traditions of academicism and treated innovations with great caution and skepticism. Pre-Raphaelite artists, on the other hand, did not want to depict nature and people as abstractly beautiful, they wanted to depict them truthfully and simply, believing that the only way to prevent the degradation of English painting was to return to the simplicity and sincerity of the art of the early Renaissance.

What did the Pre-Raphaelites particularly dislike?

• erroneous standards of academic education
• the first president of the Academy of Arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792)
• painting by Raphael "Transfiguration"
• creativity P.P. Rubens

In Raphael's painting "Transfiguration", the Pre-Raphaelites saw a neglect of simplicity and truth. According to W. H. Hunt, the robes of the apostles were too pompous, and the image of the Savior was devoid of spirituality.

D. G. Rosseti, hating the work of Rubens with all his heart, managed to write “Spit here” on the pages of his work on art history, opposite each mention and the last one.

Rafael Santi. Transfiguration

P.P. Rubens. Drunk Hercules

Sir Joshua Reynolds. self-portrait

Creative and artistic techniques of the Pre-Raphaelites

• Bright, fresh colors

To achieve brighter and fresher tones, the Pre-Raphaelite artists used a new painting technique. They painted in oil on damp white ground or on a layer of whitewash. In addition to the brightness of the colors, the chosen technique made it possible to make the works of the artists even more durable - the works of the Pre-Raphaelites have survived in their original form to this day.

• pure paints
• Reliable display of nature

Having abandoned "armchair painting", young artists began to paint in nature and gave great importance fine detail work.

“I want to paint a landscape, depicting every detail that I can see” (W. Hunt)

• Orientation towards the art of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance
• Use as models of relatives, friends and people from the street, and not professional sitters.

For famous painting Dante Rossetti "Lady Lilith" was posed by the illiterate girl Fanny Cornforth. The painting "Youth of the Virgin Mary" depicts the mother and sister of the artist Dante Rossetti. For the painting "Ophelia" the artist D.E. Millet chose a moment in Shakespeare's tragedy when Ophelia threw herself into the river, slowly sank into the water and sang fragments of songs. First, the artist painted a picturesque river corner, and he painted the figure of a girl already in the winter months. Elizabeth Siddal, dressed in luxurious antique dress, spent many hours in a bath of warm water. At one point, the lamps heated by the water went out, but the girl began to complain and became seriously ill. Subsequently, the father of Elizabeth Siddal sent the artist an invoice to pay for the treatment of his daughter.

• Symbolism

Pre-Raphaelite paintings are characterized by many details endowed with certain meaning or a symbol. For example, in the picture D.E. Millet "Ophelia" depicts many flowers. Daisies symbolize pain, chastity and deceived love, ivy is a sign of immortality and eternal rebirth, willow is a symbol of rejected love, poppies are a traditional symbol of death.

Dante Rossetti. Lady Lilith

D.G. Rossetti. Youth of the Virgin Mary

D.E. Millais. Ophelia

Pre-Raphaelite artists. Main plots and famous paintings.

If you look at the work of the Pre-Raphaelites superficially, then the first thing that seems to us when they are mentioned is the tragic figures of red-haired women embodying the images of famous literary heroines. But the true source for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was the rebellion against aesthetic conventions and the desire to portray reality truthfully and accurately.

The main themes of the work of the Pre-Raphaelites:

• medievalism (history of the Middle Ages), King Arthur
• cult of feminine beauty
• creativity of Shakespeare
• art by Dante Alighieri
• Jesus Christ
• social problems

Medievalism, King Arthur in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites

The works of the Pre-Raphaelites are filled with spiritual symbolism, referring us to the ideals of chivalry, Christian virtues and exploits. Against the background of the moral decline that prevailed in England in the middle of the XIX century, these paintings looked idyllic. But it was knightly plots and images, according to the artists of the Brotherhood, that had to overcome the decline and solve the social problems of England.

The stories about King Arthur were especially popular. Materials about King Arthur were found in abundance by the Pre-Raphaelites in the poetry of A. Tennyson. The favorite characters in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites were Galahad and Elaine, Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur, Merlin and the Lady of the Lake.

D.G. Rossetti. Virgin of the Holy Grail. 1874

E. Coley Burne-Jones. Enchanted Merlin. 1877

D. W. Waterhouse. Lady of Shallot, 1888

The work of Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri in the paintings of Pre-Raphaelite artists

To understand the meaning of some Pre-Raphaelite paintings, it is necessary to refer to their literary basis. An appeal to the text will allow to more fully reveal the features and patterns of the embodiment of a particular image.

The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to raise painting to the level of literature and poetry and bring it into art intellectual start.

Pre-Raphaelite artists in their work very often turned to literary and historical subjects. And the work of Shakespeare and Dante, in literary works which so vividly shows the drama of human relations - occupies a special place in their painting. The creators tried to depict the scene as accurately as possible from a historical point of view. In order to create as natural a composition as possible around the main scene, they carefully wrote out the background, filling it with interior or landscape details. Filling the picture with the heroes of the plot, they carefully studied the samples of costumes and ornaments in historical reference books. But, despite such pedantry to the depiction of external details, human relations have always remained the center of the composition.

D. W. Waterhouse. Miranda and the Storm

F.M. Brown. Romeo and Juliet. The famous balcony scene

D.G. Rossetti. Visions of Dante

D.G. Rossetti. Love Dante

D.G. Rosstetti. Blessed Beatrice. 1864-1870

Religious and social subjects in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites.

The "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" sought to resurrect the traditions of religious painting without referring to the conventional images of the Catholic altar painting. However, young artists did not seek to emphasize theological truths on their canvases. They approached the Bible as a source of human dramas. These works, of course, were not intended for the decoration of churches and were more literary and poetic than religious.

Over time, the work of young reformers began to be reproached for too free interpretations of religious subjects. Millet's painting "Christ in the Parents' House" depicts an ascetic setting in the carpenter's house. In the background are grazing sheep. The Savior hurt his palm with a nail, and the Mother of God consoles him. The canvas is filled with many meanings: sheep are an innocent victim, a bleeding hand is a sign of a future crucifixion, a bowl of water carried by John the Baptist is a symbol of the Baptism of the Lord. For the fact that the Holy Family is depicted on Milles' canvas "Christ in the parental home" in the form of ordinary people, critics called this painting "The Carpenter's Workshop". Queen Victoria wanted to see for herself that there was no blasphemy in the painting and asked that the painting be delivered to her. The artist decided to rename the painting just in case.

Depicting the life of ordinary people on their canvases, the Pre-Raphaelites revealed the moral and ethical problems of modern society. Often social subjects in Pre-Raphaelite paintings take the form of religious parables.

D.W. Waterhouse. Fate. 1900

The cult of female beauty on the canvases of the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood"

On the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites female images received a new development. Femininity was seen as an indivisible combination of physicality, attractiveness, symbolism and spirituality at the same time. A feature in the depiction of women was the simultaneous combination of realism and fantasy of the image. On the canvases of young artists literary images Shakespeare, Keats, Chatterton and others took on corporeality without losing their mystery. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to make available to the eye the image of a woman that romantic literature tells about.

D.G. Rossetti. Proserpina

D.W. Waterhouse. Pluck roses quickly. 1909

W. Hunt. Isabella and the Pot of Basil 1868

Pre-Raphaelites and John Ruskin

The pioneer and associate for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was the prominent and significant art theorist John Ruskin. At that moment, when an avalanche of criticism fell upon young artists, he supported the artists both morally - by writing an article in defense of a new direction in painting, and financially - by buying several Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

Everyone reckoned with the opinion of John Ruskin, so very soon the paintings of talented young people become popular. What did the venerable art theorist find so special in these paintings? On the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites, John Ruskin saw a living and creative embodiment of those ideas about which he wrote so much in his writings:

• penetration into the essence of nature
• attention to detail
• rejection of imposed conventions and canons
• idealization of the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance

The famous critic wrote several articles for The Times, where he praised the work of artists. Ruskin published a pamphlet about these masters, which was a turning point in their lives. At the academic exhibition of 1852, Hunt's "The Hired Shepherd" and Millais's "Ophelia" were received favorably.

Pre-Raphaelites. Arts and Crafts Movement. Modern style

Each Pre-Raphaelite artist was looking for his creative way and love for the Middle Ages was no longer enough to keep the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood together. The final discord occurred in 1853, when Millais became a member of the Royal Academy, which the Pre-Raphaelites opposed so fiercely.

In 1856, Rossetti met with William Morris, the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, who later influenced the formation. W. Morris, together with Edward Burne-Jones, became students of Rossetti. From this moment, a new stage of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood begins, the main idea now becomes the aestheticization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius.

Rossetti's mental and physical health is gradually deteriorating and Edward Burne-Jones is now becoming the leader of the movement. Creating works in the spirit of the early Pre-Raphaelites, he becomes extremely popular.

William Morris becomes a central figure in the decorative arts of the 19th century, and the Art Nouveau style, one of the sources of which was Pre-Raphaelitism, penetrates not only into the decorative arts, but also into furniture, interior decoration, architecture, and book design.

Pre-Raphaelite artists. Main Representatives

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

He was born into a petty-bourgeois family of intellectuals on May 12, 1828. The year 1848 was significant for the artist, since at the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts he met William Holmen Hunt. Joint creativity led to the creation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
He married the muse and popular Pre-Raphaelite model Elizabeth Siddal. In the period 1854-1862 he was a teacher at the first municipal educational institution where the lower classes studied. In 1881, the artist's health deteriorated. The resort of Burchington-on-Sea became the last refuge of the artist. Death opened its arms to him on April 9, 1882.

Style features

Characteristic features of the style of Gabriel Rossetti was a multifaceted perspective and a detailed study of each part of the picture. In the works of the author, spirituality and the greatness of man come to the fore.

Main paintings

"Youth of the Virgin Mary";
"Annunciation";
"Inscriptions in the sand";
Sir Galahad at the Ruined Chapel;
"Love Dante";
"Blessed Beatrice";
"Monna Vanna";
"Pia de Tolomei";
"Vision of Fiammetta";
"Pandora";
"Proserpina".

D.G. Rossetti. Venus Verticordia

D.G. Rosstetti. Beatrice blessed

D.G. Rossetti. King Arthur's tomb

William Holman Hunt

W.H. Hunt self-portrait, 1867

One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He differed from other artists of the community in his religiosity. From birth, he had the name William Hobman Hunt, later he independently replaced it with a pseudonym. The painting “The Light of the World” brought fame to the artist.

He wrote an autobiographical work "Pre-Raphaelitism", the purpose of which was to leave accurate data on the founding of the Brotherhood. He married Fanny Waugh, after whose death he remarried her sister Edith Alice. This union brought him disapproval from society.

Style features

The surrounding world is immersed in picturesque nature, all the details of which are aimed to enhance internal state image. A feature of Holman Hunt's work was soft transitions of halftones and rich combinations of colors.

Main paintings

• "Light of the World";
• "The Lady of Shalott";
• "Claudio and Isabella";
• The Festival of St. Swithin;
• "The descent of the blessed fire";
• "Scapegoat";
• "The shadow of death";
• "Knock".

W. H. Hunt. Scapegoat. 1856

W. H. Hunt. Knock

W.H. Hunt. The shadow of death

John Everett Millais

D.E. Millais. self-portrait

At the age of eleven he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (1840). It is considered the youngest student in the history of the institution. By the age of fifteen, he showed special skills in working with a brush. His work in the academic style "Pizarro Capturing the Peruvian Incas" was honored to be exhibited at the summer academic exhibition of 1846.

For the work "The attack of the tribe of Benjamin on the daughters of Siloam" he was awarded a gold medal in 1847. After meeting Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Hlman Hunt, he joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The work that made him famous was the painting “Ophelia”, the model for which was the muse of the Pre-Raphaelites and the future wife of D.G. Rossetti Elizabeth Siddal.

In 1855, John Everett Millais married John Ruskin's ex-wife Effie, immediately after her high-profile divorce proceedings with the latter. Since that time, he completely departs from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and creates popular paintings in an academic style. In 1896 he was elected President of the Royal Academy of Arts, the struggle against the basic principles of which was one of the unifying principles for the Pre-Raphaelite artists.

Style features

The pronounced features of the style are the inheritance of Raphael's technique. Perspective is based on the play of light and shadow. The artist used a muted palette, highlighting the accents with bright details and creating an atmosphere of action.

Main paintings

• "Pizarro captures the Peruvian Incas";
• "The attack of the tribe of Benjamin on the daughters of Siloam";
• "Ophelia";
• Cherry Ripe;
• "The Death of Romeo and Juliet".

D.E. Millais. Ophelia

D. E. Millais. Christ in the parental home

D.E. Millais. Pizarro captures the Peruvian Incas

Madox Brown

A prominent representative of Pre-Raphaelism, but was not a member of the brotherhood. He supported the ideas of Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris. Together with the latter, he was involved in the design of stained-glass windows.

He studied at the Academy of Arts (Bruges). He later moved to Ghent, then to Antwerp. Fame brought the painting "The Execution of Mary of Scotland", written in 1840. He relied on the romantic direction of the artists of the Early Renaissance. Most of the stories he devoted to religious and spiritual themes.

Style features

In the works, the artist sought to achieve a clear description of the plot, the transmission of the truth of life. Reproduction of the drama of events is achieved by contrasts of colors, expressiveness of poses.

Main paintings

• "Execution of Mary of Scotland";
• "Christ washing the feet of the Apostle Peter";
• "Farewell to England";
• "The Death of Sir Tristram".

F.M. Brown. Romeo and Juliet. The famous balcony scene

F.M. Brown. Farewell to England

F.M. Brown. Work

Edward Burne-Jones

Illustrator and painter, close in spirit to the plot and presentation to the Pre-Raphaelites. Known for his work on stained glass windows. He received his early education at King Edward's School.

Since 1848, he entered the evening courses of the government school of design for additional training. He met William Maurice at Oxford University (1853). Inspired by the ideas of the Brotherhood, he abandoned the theological direction and engaged in an in-depth study of drawing techniques. He devoted his works to the romantic legends of England.

Style features

The artist preferred to focus on the nude male body. Giving perspective through the color scheme creates a sense of flatness. The contrasting play of chiaroscuro is completely absent. The emphasis is on the line, the favorite colors are the golden and orange spectrum.

Main paintings

• "Annunciation";
• "Enchanted Merlin";
• "Golden Staircase";
• "Book of Flowers";
• "Love in the Ruins"

E. Burne-Jones. Love among the ruins.

E. Coley Burne-Jones. King Cofetua and a beggar woman. 1884

Burne Jones. Enchanted Merlin

William Morris

W. Morris. self-portrait

English prose writer, painter, poet and socialist. Considered the largest representative of the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites, the recognized unofficial leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
A wealthy family was able to give the artist a good education. On the basis of his passion for the Middle Ages and the Tractarian movement, he became friends with Edward Burne-Jones.
Main storylines in the paintings of W. Morris there was a legend about King Arthur. The collection The Defense of Guinevere and Other Poems, published in 1858, was devoted to this idea.
Since 1859 he lived in an official marriage with Jane Burden. She became his model for many paintings.