The Pre-Raphaelites: Romance and Realism

One of the best-loved of all art movements, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais in an attempt to rediscover the authenticity they felt painting had lost since Raphael. Influenced by the writer John Ruskin they took inspiration from religious, medieval, literary or mythological texts, expressing themselves in writings, the fine and decorative arts. In their day they caused controversy in the art world, but now their legacy is admired for its symbolic richness and pictorial power.