The Pre-Raphaelites

I have always really liked the ethereal paintings of the pre-Raphaelites.

The secret society was founded in 1848 by a group of English painters including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, John Everett Millais, Frederic George Stephens, Thomas Woolner and William Holman Hunt.

They take their name not as a result of their imitation of the work of High Italian Renaissance master Raphael but their rejection of it. They saw the work of Raphael and his Mannerist followers as mechanistic in approach and believed that the Classical poses and elegant compositions had corrupted the academic opinion on how art should be taught. Instead, they hailed the intense colours and minutiae of naturalistic detail of Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art.

The Mermaid, John William Waterhouse, 1900

Ophelia, John Everett Millais, 1851-2

The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse, 1888 (based on the enchanting 1842 poem by Tennyson)