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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Pre-Raphaelites
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In 1848 three students at the Royal Academy schools, Holman *Hunt, *Rossetti and *Millais, formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, aiming to create art which expressed important ideas and which derived from a direct study of nature. Their inspiration, in reacting against the murky academic art of their own time, was the brightly lit and minutely detailed narrative painting of the 15C, which had ended with Raphael.
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To express the solidarity of the brotherhood they added the letters PRB as a monogram on their pictures. It was partly this hint of a secret group which caused a storm to break about their heads, together with the outrage caused by Millais' realistic treatment of the Holy Family in Christ in the House of His Parents (1850, Tate Gallery). But they found an immediate champion in *Ruskin, and a year later Millais' Return of the Dove to the Ark (1851, Ashmolean Museum) was a great success.
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The sharply observed clarity of these images was influential, and soon other artists were exhibiting works now described as Pre-Raphaelite. Ford Madox *Brown, older than the three in the brotherhood, can be seen as a precursor, for he was already painting in a closely related style; Charles Allston Collins (Convent Thoughts 1851, Ashmolean) was linked almost from the start; among the best known of the others are Arthur Hughes (April Love 1855, Tate; Home from Sea 1862, Ashmolean) and Henry Wallis (The Death of Chatterton 1856, Tate; The Stonebreaker 1857, Birmingham City Art Gallery).
From the start there was a more mystical feeling in the work of Rossetti (for example his Annunciation scene, Ecce Ancilla Domini 1850, Tate), and this element of Pre-Raphaelitism also had prolonged influence – above all on *Burne-Jones.
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