Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
honest poor, reminiscent of Dickens. Many paintings warn us to be good little boys and
girls by showing the consequences of a life of sin. And then there are the puppy dogs with
sad eyes.
The Pre-Raphaelites
You'll see medieval damsels in dresses and knights in tights, legendary lovers from poetry,
and even a very human Virgin Mary as a delicate young woman. The women wear flowing
dresses and have long, wavy hair and delicate, elongated, curving bodies. Beautiful.
Overdosed with the gushy sentimentality of their day, a band of 20-year-old
artists—including Sir John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Holman
Hunt—said “Enough!” and dedicated themselves to creating less saccharine art. Their
“Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood” (you may see the initials P. R. B. by the artist's signature)
returned to a style “pre-Raphael”—that is, “medieval” in its simple style, in its melancholy
mood, and often in its subject matter.
“Truth to Nature” was their slogan. Like the Impressionists who followed them, they
donned their scarves, barged out of the stuffy studio, and set up outdoors, painting trees,
streams, and people, like scientists on a field trip. Still, they often captured nature with
such a close-up clarity that it's downright unnatural. And despite the Pre-Raphaelite claim
to paint life just as it is, this is so beautiful it hurts.
This is art from the cult of femininity, worshipping Woman's haunting beauty, com-
passion, and depth of soul (proto-feminism or nouveau-chauvinism?). The artists' wives
and lovers were their models and muses, and the art echoed their love lives. The people
are surrounded by nature at its most beautiful, with every detail painted crystal clear. Even
without the people, there is a mood of melancholy.
