in 1849, two young students at the esteemed Royal Academy in London shared a studio. These two men were William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. They became inspired by the words of John Ruskin ['go to nature in all singleness of heart'], and the poetry of John Keats (Hunts first picture for the Royal academy exhibition being painting on the theme from Keats poem The Eve of St. Agnes). Another young artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (who had dropped out of the Royal Academy school) admired Hunt's picture at the exhibition and soon became a great friend of Hunt. Hunt and Rossetti drew up a list of personalities whom they deemed their 'immortals' [William Shakespeare and such. . .] and affixed it to their studio wall. Searching for a purer form of art, [that was free from corruption pride and disease' -Hunt] they decided to return to the artistic traditions that came before Raphael and the Post Renaissance (hence the name Pre-Raphaelite). They saw the academic art that flourished in the Academy as "sloshy" [this refers to artists paying no attention to nature, and painting merely with the rules and techniques learned in the academies. The perfect example of this was the common scene of a nude on a beach. Why is she there? What is the context and story of this painting?] and nicknamed the founder of the academy "Sir Sloshua Reynolds". And so, in their enthusiasm to reform British art and they knew it [they would also exhibit their pictures with the initials P.R.B], the three men formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and recruited four more members. Thus the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born.

The first pictures exhibited with the initials in 1850 PRB were Millias' 'Christ in the House of His Parents', Hunt's 'Claudio and Isabella' , Rossetti's 'Ecce Ancilla Domini'/Girlhood of Mary Virgin? The first Pre-Raphaelite pictures were attacked by critics for being too imitative, particularish and particularly for portraying Christian subjects plainly, without idealization as the exhibition going audience and critics were used to seeing. The London Times even accused Millias picture 'Christ in the House of His Parents', of pictorial blasphemy.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's painting technique was revolutionary compared to others at the Royal Academy. The artists paid attention to small particular details rather than the overall color of an area. The models for these paintings were for the most part friends and family of the artists themselves. Models were not generic or idealized and the artists did not work from plaster models. The fact that almost all figures in Pre-Raphaelite paintings can be distinguished as being not only the narrative figure in the painting but also a particular person who posed for the painting. The painting above may depict the Virgin Mary but it is also a faithful portrait of Christina Rossetti. As the PRB was interesting in being true to nature, the artists practiced "plein air" painting, but in a completely different manner than the impressionists who are famed for their own "plein air" paintings. Millias and Hunt each spent two months outside painstakingly painting the backgrounds for their respective paintings Ophelia and The Hireling Shepherd. Rossetti is said to have given up painting out of doors due to particularly rainy painting sessions, but always worked from fresh flowers in his later paintings.

William Holman Hunt developed another method of painting that the Pre-Raphaelites are known for. This "wet-white" technique involved painting thin glazes of pure color over a ground of wet white paint. Only a very small area of the canvas could be worked on in a day due to this. Hunt is the only PRB member who remained faithful to this technique later in his career.

Later, as the artists know as Pre-Raphaelites changed directions the movement began to be know for different artists and styles. Millias became the head of the Royal Academy and began to work in a looser style. Rossetti moved onto other projects with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. Rossetti was considered to be the leader of the movement at one point. At the height of Edward Burne-Jones career he was considered the preeminent Pre-Raphaelite.

Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Morris are associated with the Art & Crafts movement, as well was Aestheticism. Some of Rossetti and Burne-Jones paintings became subject-less; painted purely for the sake of beauty. These are seen as a precursor to Symbolism. The Morris & Co. designed decorative furniture, textiles and published several illuminated manuscripts which both Rossetti and Burne-Jones were involved in. The Pre-Raphaelite movement comes in stages; the original brotherhood; the Morris & Co era; and 19th century followers of the original brotherhood such as Arthur Hughes. Many Contemporary illustrators and fantasy artists continue to be influenced by these artists.

The common misconception of Pre-Raphaelites is that they were only painters who created pictures of beautiful medieval red-haired girls and knights, when in reality they originally been more interesting in painting moral themes and truth to nature. Therefore quite a few artists are now considered to be Pre-Raphaelites, who were not connected to the original brotherhood.

Artists often labeled Pre-Raphaelites but not necessarily associated with original Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

The original Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Painters William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millias, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,James Collinson, Frederick George Stephens, sculptor Thomas Woolner, and aspiring art critic William Michael Rossetti.

Friends and Associates of the P.R.B.

Painter Ford Madox Brown, Walter Howell Deverell, Art Critic John Ruskin, Designer, poet and artist William Morris, Painter Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones

Women of the P.R.B.

Model and artists Elizabeth Siddal, Maria Spartali-Stillman, (models and wives, Jane Morris, Georgiana Burne-Jone who did work for William Morris and Co.)

Followers and Other Artists commonly associated identified as Pre-Raphaelites

Arthur Hughes, John Spencer Stanhope, Fredrick Sandys, (Lord Frederic Leighton, John William Waterhouse, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, George Frederick Watts, Evelyn De Morgan, Anna Lea Merrit, John Methusela Strudwick,, Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, Edward John Pointer

Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence

Would be more effectively called a Classicist, and I, myself would even venture to call him a slosh-ist (needless to say I have a great dislike for his paintings. He specialized in painting what have been called paintings of victorians in greek costume. They seem so sugary and claustrophobic with that overabundance of flowers and should hardly be compared to the simple elegance of John Everett Millias.

Burne-Jones, Sir Edward Coley

Designed tapaestries and stained glass for Morris & Co as well as painting the Oxfard murals with Rossetti and Morris. He is considered one of the most important Victorian painters.

Burne-Jones, Georgiana

Wife of Edward Burne-Jones. Painted porcelian for Morris and Co and was the model for many of his pictures.

Brown, Ford Madox

Was always assocaiated with the PRB but declined to join because he was older the other artists and already established. He also taught both Rossetti and Maria Stillman.

Collinson, James

De Morgan, Evelyn

Deverell, Walter Howell

Fortescue Brickdale, Eleanor

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Hunt, William Holman

Remained true to original PRB ideals and spent an extended time painting biblical themes in the middle east.

Hughes, Arthur, April Love

converted to Pre-Raphaelitism

Leighton, Lord Frederic

Head of the Royal academy from - academic classical painter, Flaming June

Merrit, Anna Lea

Painted the picture Love Locked Out which features in the Robertson Davies novel What's Bred in the Bone.

Millias, John Everett

Boy genious painter, Head of the Royal academy from -

Morris, William

Morris, Jane

model, embroiderer

Pointer, Edward John

Rossetti, Christina

Poet, and sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She was the model for Rossetti's picture The Girlhood of Mary, Virgin.

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel

artist, poet

Rossetti, William Michael

Art critic, brother of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti.

Ruskin, John

Major art critic, author of "Modern Painters and patron of D.G. Rossetii and Elizabeth Siddal.

Siddal, Elizabeth

Spartali-Stillman, Maria

model for Rossetti, and Julia Magaret Cameron, Rossetti encouraged to paint. Studied w/ Ford Madox Brown, painting more like Rossetti's.

Sandys, Fredrick

Assistant to Rossetti, plagarism

Stephens, Frederick George

Stanhope, John Spencer

Burne-Jones, Head of the Royal academy from - ?

Strudwick,, John Methusela

Begain training as an assistant to Burne-Jones.

Woolner, Thomas

Was the only sculptor associated with the movement

Waterhouse, John William

John William Waterhouse is often labeled as a Pre-Raphaelite, but as Waterhouse biographer Anthony Hobson states is more correctly called a 'Romantic Classicist'. Waterhouse painted many of the same themes relating to victorian poetry and Shakespeare as many Pre-Raphaelite artists, but over his career was more interested in painting classical Greek legends. Waterhouse was born in Italy, and his first painting depicted scenes from daily Greek or Roman life, rather than the romantic subjects of his later career. Waterhouse's later classical themed paintings such as Hylas and the Nymphs take on the stange quality of a classical scene set in a distincly English landscape. Waterhouse is famous for his images or beautiful thoughtful maidens and femme fatales such as the Odyssey's Circe, for which he favored on model of most of his career. Waterhouse's technique was more painterly than that of Hunt or Millias, but he still managed to to paint incredibly natural looking scenes.

Watts, George Frederick