pre-raphaelites – Mysterious Art Century

Pomps and Vanities by John Collier

Source

John William Waterhouse

Winter gives way to Spring by Henry Meynell Rheam

Sold at Christie’s for GBP 7,500.

The Angel of the Birds by Franz Dvorak

The Angel of Birds reveals the diverse influences of the Pre-Raphaelites, Aesthetic Movement, and fairy painting as well as Dvorak’s interest in nature and the imaginary. Diverse birds, their individual characteristics carefully depicted, surround the central, angelic figure. Their vibrant, almost otherworldly colors are mirrored in her expansive wings, a dazzling effect reminiscent of William HolmanContinue reading “The Angel of the Birds by Franz Dvorak”

April Love by Arthur Hughes

This is Hughes’s best-known work, and one of the most popular of all Pre-Raphaelite paintings. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, the accompanying catalogue contained a quotation from one of the songs in Tennyson’s ‘The Miller’s Daughter’, in which the young lovers fear the passing of their love: ‘Love is hurt with jar and fret,Continue reading “April Love by Arthur Hughes”

The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne-Jones

This story is taken from the Arthurian Legends, which were the artist’s favourite subjects. Merlin had fallen in love with Nimue (also called Nimiane, Vivian or Vivien). She profited from his infatuation by learning his skills in enchantment. Here she is shown sending Merlin into a deep sleep. The intensity and close relationship between theContinue reading “The Beguiling of Merlin by Edward Burne-Jones”

The Keepsake by Kate Elizabeth Bunce

The painting is filled with Arts and Crafts motifs, popular with the Birmingham School of Art at this time. Ethel Newill who modelled for the figure on the right was a friend of Bunce’s and came from a prominent artistic Birmingham family. Katie Palmer is the figure second from the right holding a staff andContinue reading “The Keepsake by Kate Elizabeth Bunce”

Ford Madox Brown’s King Lear

While in Paris in 1843-4, Ford Madox Brown sketched a set of eighteen pen-and-ink studies for King Lear. Two designs he later developed as finished paintings “Lear and Cordelia” and “Cordelia’s Portion” and a third he turned into an oil-sketch, “Cordelia Parting from Her Sisters”. King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It tells the tale of a king who bequeaths hisContinue reading “Ford Madox Brown’s King Lear”

Ellen Terry by George Frederic Watts

This delicate yet sensuous portrait shows the seventeen-year-old Ellen Terry choosing between the camellias, which despite their luscious appearance have little scent, and the violets in her hand which are far humbler in appearance but smell sweeter. The choice, which is symbolic of that between worldly vanities and higher virtues, had a personal significance forContinue reading “Ellen Terry by George Frederic Watts”

Triumph of the Will by James Tissot

The Challenge was described by Tissot as the first of a ‘Poem in five parts’ entitled The Triumph of Will. Ruskin, who praised Tissot’s ‘conscientiousness’ but thought most of his Grosvenor Gallery exhibits ‘unhappily, mere colored photographs of vulgar [ordinary] society’, preferred what he mis-titled the ‘Strength of Will’. It made him ‘think the painter capable, ifContinue reading “Triumph of the Will by James Tissot”