Why ‘Pre Raphaelite’?• they were initially in reaction against what they felt were the ‘frivolous art of the day’ • They deeply admired the integrity and simplicities of the early 15thC • Their aim to bring back art to a ‘greater truth to nature’ Lord Leighton Flaming June
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Edouard Manet, Henri Fantin-Latour, andPierre Puvis de Chavannes.
THOMAS COUTURE (1815-1879)was an influential French historypainter and teacher.• He failed the prestigious Prix de
Rome competition at the École six
times, but he felt the problem waswith the École, not himself.• Couture finally did win the prize in
1837.• In 1840, he began exhibiting
historical and genre pictures at the
Paris Salon, earning several medalsfor his works, in particular for his1847 masterpiece, Romans in theDecadence of the Empire,
• Shortly after his this success,Couture opened an independentatelier meant to challenge the Écoledes Beaux-Arts by turning out thebest new history painters.
High Morality• They adopted a high moral stance painting only ‘serious- usually religious or
romantic-subjects.• Their style was clear and sharply focussed• They adopted a sometimes unwieldy combination of symbolism and realism• That insisted on painting everything from direct observation.• The Lad Of Shalott John William Waterhouse
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/pre-rap-ha-elites 16/33Millais Christ In The House Of His Parents1850
Slightly Disturbing• Whilst being laboriously truthful became• Became progressively old-worldish• This decision to live in the past whilst deploying the judgements of the present can make the
Painted from Nature• Was modelled on a real body surrounded by a body of genuine wildflowers• Millais spent four months painting the background vegetation on the same spot in
Surrey England• He then returned to London to paint his model Elizabeth Siddal in the bath tub
An Odd dislocation• The result is oddly dislocated• It’s as if the setting, woman, flowers did not belong together each keeping its own
‘On English coastsIt is a political allegoryIts theme is strayed and unprotected sheep
An unpleasant taste
The weirdly acidic colours strike unpleasantly on the eyesThe story is believable but forcedThe bright yellow is garishly bright as is the aggressive greens of the sea.
Luminous ColoursThey painted pure colours onto a canvass pre-prepared with whiteSometimes this would be applied freshly each day to give the colours fresh
Elizabeth SiddelShe was discovered by Walter Deverell in amilliner's shop in 1850. At the time he wassearching for a model for Voila in his paintingTwelfth Night. Later he told William Holman
Hunt, ‘By Jove! she’s like a queen,magnificently tall, with a lovely figure, a statelyneck, and a face of the most delicatemodelling; the flow of surface from thetemples over the cheek is exactly like thecarving of a Pheidean goddess.
Wait a minute! I haven’t done; she has greyeyes, and her hair is like dazzling copper, andshimmers with lustre as she waves it down.And now, where do you think I lighted on thisparagon of beauty? Why, in a milliner’s back
workroom where I went out with my mothershopping. Having nothing to amuse me, whilethe woman was tempting my mother withsomething, I peered over the blind of a glassdoor at the back of the shop, and there wasthis unexpected jewel.’
A drawing by Rosetti of Elizabeth painting
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Siddal was the living breathing epitome of the Pre-Raphaelite woman
Elizabeth Lizzie Siddal was the living, breathing epitome of the Pre Raphaelite woman.With her sensuous full lips, heavy-lidded eyes, and above all her incredible waist-lengthauburn hair, she could only be described as a "stunner".
Elizabeth led a tormented life.• She worked as a milliner in her teenage years, her engagement to Rossetti was broken
off several times, and she was always afraid of being replaced with a younger muse.• She also suffered from an addiction to laudanum.• After bearing a stillborn daughter, she overdosed on laudanum.• Her possible suicide was covered up, as it would have prevented her from receiving a
proper burial.
• Study by Rossetti• Photo of Elizabeth• Self Portrait