Today in visual culture we looked at the work of the Pre-Raphaelites who were a movement created in the world of art and photography where the themes of 15th century painters were revived in the modern idiom.
The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood featured the artists John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, James Collinson, Thomas Woolner, William Rossetti and Frederic George Stephens. They are recognised as the first British Art Movement and published a yearly periodical of their work called The Germ.
Their work was heavily influenced by The Legend of King Arthur and Shakespearian heroines. A lot of the paintings use the image of Dante Rossetti's girlfriend and later wife Elizabeth Siddal. Spotted working in a hat shop with her tempestuous looks and flowing red locks she was the perfect muse for the brotherhood .
The work owed much to photographs taken of their subjects. Another model to sit for the artists was Jane Morris the wife of Rossetti's friend fellow artist William Morris. Embalking on an affair with her was enough to destroy Elizabeth. She died young and was buried with a book of Rossetti's poetry. However in impoverished circumstances he exhumed the book only to find it had been worm damaged. He died quite a few years later of alcoholism.
The Pre-Raphaelite movement produced many great artworks but the best has to be The Lady Of Shalott by John William Waterhouse (pictured above) which perhaps I could describe as the muse to my muse!