Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Pre-Raphaelitism broke upon the British art world at the Royal Academy exhibitions of 1849 and 1850. An avant-garde movement aiming to regenerate fine art it soon became the most talked-about feature of contemporary culture exciting both enthusiasm and hostility. From the “visionary vanities of half a dozen boys” – as the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti later described the original impulse behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – it was promoted by critic John Ruskin to become a nation-wide influence available to artists over the next half-century. Its main figures have been seen to be firstly Rossetti William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Their personal example spread the word amongst their acquaintances and their exhibition appearances attracted recruits from around the country while Ruskin enthusiasts needed no further encouragement to join up. Thus Pre-Raphaelitism rapidly became an important ingredient in the work of artists such as Anna Mary Howitt Barbara Leigh Smith (later Bodichon) Jane Benham (later Hay) Elizabeth Siddal Joanna Boyce Rosa Brett and Anna Blunden. The personal association constantly expanding the number of the style’s adherents brought friends and relatives such as Julia Margaret Cameron Rebecca Solomon Emma Sandys and Maria Zambaco within Pre-Raphaelitism’s orbit. In due course the original Pre-Raphaelites’ pupils and children joined the throng adding such names as Lucy and Cathy Madox Brown and Marie Spartali (later Stillman) to the movement’s roll-call. Taken at first to be a mere retinue these accumulated followers of the original impulse soon helped Pre- Raphaelitism to a second wind. (SP)