Background to this site
This web site sets out to document the material related to the
term Pre-Raphaelite that is held by Birmingham Museums and Art
Gallery. It has been structured around the distinctions between the
following key groupings:
The Original Members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
(PRB)
In 1848 a group of seven young artists came together to challenge
the Academy-based training with a vision that looked back to
medieval and early-Italian art for inspiration. Central to their
imagery was the aspiration to be true to nature and moral in
content. In the collection William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and John Everett Millais are represented as the key
founders of this original group, supported by the sculptor Thomas
Woolner and James Collinson.
Associates and Followers
Associates and followers form the largest grouping, covering
artists who were close to the PRB from its inception, most notably
Ford Madox Brown. Artists who were both influenced by and helped to
shape the style of the movement include Arthur Hughes, Frederick
Sandys, Elizabeth Siddal, the sculptor Alexander Munro who produced
the key piece of Pre-Raphaelite sculpture Paolo and
Francesca, Simeon Solomon, William Dyce, Henry Wallis in the
early part of his career, John and Rosa Brett.
Strongly represented are artists linked to ‘the second phase’ of
the movement. This emerged from the decoration of the Oxford Union
Building and laid the foundation for an arts and craft movement
embracing the decorative arts. This again involved three key
figures, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Edward
Burne-Jones, with supporters such as the photographer Frederick
Hollyer and Jane Morris as model and textile artist.
The Wider Context
The wider context is represented by material which extends the
Pre-Raphaelite movement into the later nineteenth-century, for
example printed material for illustrations to weekly periodicals
and books engraved by the Dalziel Brothers and Joseph Swain;
drawings by John Ruskin, the most important critic and writer
promoting the Pre-Raphaelites; designs for wallpaper by William
Morris; an important group of stained glass cartoons largely
collected and presented to the Museum by J R Holliday; and the
vital contribution of the Birmingham School of Artists.
The scope and depth of this fine and decorative art material means
that specific areas such as the framed stained glass collection,
ceramics by William de Morgan, and the Birmingham School demand
further research and photography. This process is on-going, but it
is hoped that the funding necessary to complete this extensive
documentation of a remarkable collection will be forthcoming in the
near future.