Art Guide · Art movements
Pre-Raphaelites
1848 – 1900
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in London in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, aiming to return to the sincerity of art before Raphael and to truth to nature.
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Last updated: · Iconica Society editors
Characteristics
Rejecting the idealising rules of the Academy, the Brotherhood worked with brilliant colour, extraordinary detail and close observation of nature. They took their subjects from Shakespeare, Arthurian legend, medieval poetry and the Bible. Supported by the critic John Ruskin, they gained recognition; John William Waterhouse carried the tradition on in the next generation.
