https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-constable-108
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/make/paint-draw/paint-turner
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-are-pre-raphaelites
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/make/paint-draw/draw-pre-raphaelite
Notable artists: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais
How you might know it: If you’re enchanted with romantic-era Britain, you may have seen Pre-Raphaelite art carrying through some of the symbols – loose hair, flowing skirts and visual melodrama. Mallais’ Ophelia has even surfaced as a bit of a meme. Look it up and see if you recognise it!
History in a nutshell: In Victorian Britain, a revolution was taking place against the Royal Academy of Arts. Academy students Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt formed a secret group known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB).
The Academy promoted Renaissance master Raphael as the ‘ideal’ style of painting, and there was a trend of painting mundane ‘every day’ scenes (known as ‘genre painting’) at the time. The PRB decided to rebel against these standards by taking inspiration from 15th Century Italian artists – before Raphael, hence Pre-Raphaelite. These included scenes from religion and literature, and portraits of people in nature.
After initial outrage against their works, the PRB became highly influential, with other artists joining the movement. By the 1860s, a second phase of the movement contributed to bringing back symbolism in paintings.
How to spot it: Pre-Raphaelite paintings are often realistic with hyper-detailed backgrounds. Scenes from Shakespeare and Tennyson were popular, and many of the objects in the paintings were common symbols in literature. A Rossetti is easy to spot as he rotated the same four models in his work – creating a muse with long reddish hair and a signature square jaw.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zwt8g7h
https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Dante-Gabriel-Rossetti/633061
https://kids.kiddle.co/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rossetti-proserpine-n05064
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-john-everett-millais
https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/make/paint-draw/draw-fairy-tale