In the mid-1800's a group of artists and poets, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and J.E. Millais, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), with their initial publication, The Germ. These artists desired to free themselves from the restrictions and mechanizations of the incipient Industrial Revolution. They painted vividly colored pastoral and metaphorical paintings often illustrating a classical poem or legend. The Pre-Raphaelite poets were Romantic in a sense, but also formed their own distinctive voice calling for a return to a more simplistic, contemplative life.
Near the close of the Nineteenth Century, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and others decried the current state of the art world with their slogan, "Art For Art's Sake" and ushered in a golden era of revitalization in book design in Great Britain. These, and other artists holding to the values of the PRB, solidified the movement which then spread into Europe and the U.S. Almost every imaginable aspect of artistic expression was represented, including architecture, furniture, metalwork, tapestry, ceramics, wallpaper design, and much more. It can be accurately stated that the books published from 1850-1900, replete with the art of the Pre-Raphaelites and their successors, are among the most beautiful in the era of modern mass book publication.
Below are some photos from books in our collection.
Edward Burne-Jones
D.G. Rossetti
J.E. Millais
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Comments: 31
high brow. Check out the links. Lots of nice pictures for low brows! lol
""Toward the middle of the 19th century, a small group of young artists in England reacted vigorously against what they felt was "the frivolous art of the day": this reaction became known as the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Their ambition was to bring English art (such as it was) back to a greater "truth to nature." They deeply admired the simplicities of the early 15th century, and they felt this admiration made them a brotherhood.
"While contemporary critics and art historians worshiped Raphael as the great master of the Renaissance, these young students rebelled against what they saw as Raphael's theatricality and the Victorian hypocrisy and pomp of the academic art tradition. The friends decided to form a secret society, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, in deference to the sincerities of the early Renaissance before Raphael developed his grand manner. The Prc-Raphaelites adopted a high moral stance that embraced a sometimes unwieldy combination of symbolism and realism. They painted only serious - usually religious or romantic - subjects, and their style was clear and sharply focused. it entailed a unique insistence on painting everything from direct observation." from "The Artchive," http://artchive.com/artchive/prb.html
And yet Rossetti was carrying on with William Morris' wife, LOL!
Kudos to all of you.