BVA312 Art History The British Rebellion 30/04/2019

Art History  30/4/19

The British Rebellion

John Everett Milllais - the Death of Opelia

Britain - industrial leader - Great Exhibition of 1851.

organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert.
Arts and Crafts Movement - threatened by the advances of technology - Victorian Albert Museum.

William Morris - wallpaper and textile designer - one of the most prolific artists of his day.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood  Victorian Revolutionaries - opposition to the Royal Academy's promotion of Renaissance Master Raphael.

See a picture - note artist and what you can find on google - my personal interests, my choice.

William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabrielle Rossetti.
captured subjects from everyday life.

• 1850 - critic Charles Dickens criticized Millais - Christ in his Parents Workshop.  Brushed away Academy rules.  Composition - realism.  Subjects were depicted in a real and harsh way.
• Brotherhood founded in 1848  - early 19th C British art has become lazy and boring.  Interested in literature and poetry - literature and Bible were inspiration.
• Questioned standard composition rules.

William Rossetti - brother to Dante.

To capture life as it was - referred back to 15th C Pre Raphaelite engravings  -
Vhttps://www.ranker.com/list/famous-william-holman-hunt-paintings/reference
William Holman Hunt -

https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-william-holman-hunt-paintings/reference

A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids
A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids is a painting by William Holman Hunt that was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It was a companion to John Everett Millais's Christ in the House of His Parents. Both artists sought to depict similar episodes from very early Christian history, portraying families helping an injured individual. Both stressed the primitivism of the scene.

Dante Gabrielle Rossetti - 

The Annunciation

Angel has no wings - no foreground or background - the Press criticized the art heavily, reactions were that of horror.

Moved from religious subjects to everyday life.


William Holman Hunt


William Holman Hunt, by Sir William Blake Richmond - NPG 2803


Annie Miller (1835-1925), model and muse of Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt.

https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/475692779369374341/

New painting techniques and new subject matters - works did not sell well - John Ruskin came to their  aid - two years kept quiet then wrote to the Times to support the artists.
Founded a school of art - abuse from the press fell away so they could develop their art.

Critic:  Rupert Maas

For me as an artist I do not follow conventions - something in common with the Pre Raphaelites -

Natural world - painting the landscape as it was - a sort of scientific approach.  A new realism.
Rail travel enabled the artists to get out to remote places to paint plein aire.  The had to prepare their own paints so they could travel - pigment-oil carried in a pigs bladder.  1851 South East Rail line -

John Everett Millais - Ophelia - The Tate - Britain.

John Everett Millais Ophelia 1851–52 oil on canvas. Image courtesy Tate.




Meaning of the painting included a struggle for survival - painted Elizabeth Siddal  - posed lying in the tin bath.  The background was painted on location and figure added later in a studio.  Not scared to approach a subject or story from an different angle.


The detailed work was in step with the Industrial revolution - painting with a scientific fidelity.

Ruskin and Millais - wife Effie Gray  ended up leaving him for Millais.  Ended relationship between Ruskin and Millais.

Elizabeth Siddal - primitive artist - explored medieval fantasy world with Rossetti.

Our English Coasts - William Holman Hunt - environmental art, lost sheep - are a metaphor for what was going on in England at the time.
The modernity of the scene includes a steam ship in the background - painting painted at the end of the day to show atmosphere - feelings.

Ford Maddox Brown - painted in Pre Raphaelite style  - novel idea of making the model stand out in the sunshine.  Ford Madox Brown, (born April 16, 1821, Calais, France—died October 6, 1893, London, England), English painter whose work is associated with that of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, although he was never a member.


https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ford-Madox-Brown





https://www.bmagprints.org.uk/image/331206/ford-madox-brown-an-english-autumn-afternoon-1852-1853

An English Autumn Afternoon, 1852-1853

Ford Madox Brown

Colour and style was revolutionary - so much detail.  A story in a scene?  An almost photographic process.  

Truth to nature - admired at home and abroad.  

new ways in seeing - using new technologies .  We can be part of that - life as it is - how would my art look like?  We are always progressing towards something and away from something else.