The  Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848 by a group of young artists, disillusioned with the artistic orthodoxy of the day . At that time Raphael was widely regarded as the greatest artist of all time. The original founders of the PRB were highly enthusiastic about Italian art pre-dating Raphael. The bright colours, naivety, & their evident sheer joy in painting of these earlier artists, was felt to be closer to an ideal than Raphael. Following strong initial criticism, of their unconventional views,  the PRB artists, with the help of John Ruskin, became influential figures. The key original members of the brotherhood were William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, & the sculptor Thomas Woolner. There were a number of other painters associated with the Pre-Raphaelites in the early days including Ford Madox Brown,  Arthur Hughes, & Frederick Sandys. There were many other artists who followed on from the Pre-Raphaelite painters in their fidelity to nature, bright colours, & high degree of finish.

In later years there was a school of artists often described as second generation Pre-Raphaelites, the most significant of whom was Edward Burne-Jones. These artists gradually moved towards symbolism, & the second generation Pre-Raphaelite description is probably misleading. Burne- Jones memorably described his work by saying “ I mean by a picture a beautiful romantic dream, of something that never was, never will be – in a light better than any light that ever shone – in a land which no one can define, or remember, only desire.” These artists included followers of Burne- Jones, including Stanhope, Strudwick, Marie Spartali Stillman, Walter Crane, Evelyn De Morgan, & Sidney Harold Meteyard.

Pre-Raphaelite & 19^th Century Art Since 1900

Lord Leighton, President of the Royal Academy died on 25^th January 1896. He was succeeded as PRA by Sir John Everett Millais, who was already terminally ill, & died on the 13^th August of the same year. The obituaries of both were mainly laudatory, but the inevitable attacks, leading to the decline of their reputations, had already begun. When Edward Burne-Jones died two years later, he was painfully aware, his standing was in decline, & that the triumph of Impressionism, which he despised, was at hand. By 1920 Victorian art was totally unfashionable & despised, with pictures being virtually unsaleable, or of little value. The exhibition celebrating the centenary of the birth of Burne Jones was not particularly well-attended, & attracted some hostile reviews.