6.2 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Aesthetic Movement, and Realism

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

• Organized in 1848, they wished to create a fresh and sincere art

• art movement that broke away from British Academic art which drew from the narrow conventions of the Italian High Renaissance

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

• one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement

• His style eventually became all-consumed with the idea of female beauty, his “stunner” women

• Lady Lilith

• Prosperine

William Holman Hunt

• Another founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

• His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid color, and elaborate symbolism

• The Light of the World

• The Awakening Conscience

John Everett Millais

• English painter and book illustrator

• also a founder

• great attention to detail, often concentrating on the beauty and complexity of the natural world

• Christ in the House of His Parents

John William Waterhouse

• one of Britain’s greatest artists, known for depicting classical and historical scenes, as well as literary themes executed in his characteristic dreamy, sensuous, and romantic manner

• Hylas and the Nymphs

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

• depictions of luxury and decadence in fabulous exotic landscapes and interiors

• great skill at handling surfaces like metals, pottery, and marble

• Roses of Heliogabalus

• The Finding of Moses

The Aesthetic Movement

• threatened to dismantle Britain's fussy, overbearing, and conservative Victorian traditions

• penetrated all areas of life - from music and literature to interior design and fashion

• focusing on self-expression

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

• celebrated for his innovative painting style and eccentric personality.

• His works show his averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting

• Portrait of Whistler’s Mother

Edward Burne-Jones

• British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement,

• worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts, particularly stained glass

• Love among the Ruins

Nineteenth-Century Realism

• An unapologetic honesty to the subject matter, producing unflinching, sometimes "ugly" portrayals of life's unpleasant moments and the use of dark, earthy palettes that confronted high art's ultimate ideals of beauty.

• A general moving away from the 'ideal' and towards the ordinary, depicting real-life situations stripped of aesthetics and universal truths.

Gustave Courbet

• committed to painting only what he could physically see even if that reality was plain and blemished

• Burial at Ornans

• The Stone Breakers

Jean-Francois Millet

• Best known for his paintings exalting peasants toiling in rural landscapes, and the religious sub-texts that often accompanied them

• The Sower, The Gleaners