Founded in 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood can rightfully be considered the first avant-garde movement in Europe. The mysterious letters "R.K.V.", which appeared in the paintings of young and unknown artists, confused the English public - students of the Royal Academy of Arts in London wanted to change not only the principles of modern art, but also its role in the social life of society.

During the Industrial Revolution, elevated subjects and austere academic painting in the spirit of Raphael fell out of favor with the Victorian middle class, giving way to artistic kitsch and sentimental scenes. Realizing the crisis of the ideals of the High Renaissance, members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood turned to Italian art of the 15th century. The examples were the works of outstanding Quattrocento painters - a bright, rich palette, emphasized decorativeness of their works were combined with vital truthfulness and a sense of nature.

The leaders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were the artists D.E. Millais (1829-1896), D.G Rossetti (1828-1882), W.H. Hunt, as well as F.M. Brown. At the end of the 1850s, a new group formed around Rossetti, which included W. Morris, E. Burne-Jones (1833-1898), E. Siddal and S. Solomon.

Artists of Rossetti's circle were engaged in painting and graphics, wrote poetry and designed books, developed interior decor and furniture design. Back in the middle of the 19th century, the Pre-Raphaelites began working in the open air, raising the issue of women's rights in society and contributing to the formation of the most important style of the end of the century - Art Nouveau art.

Tasks of the Pre-Raphaelites

The young artists who founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood realized that they belonged to a culture in which there were no traditions of religious painting, destroyed in the 16th century, during the Reformation. The Pre-Raphaelites faced a difficult task - to resurrect religious art without resorting to the ideal-conventional images of the Catholic altarpiece.

Unlike the Renaissance masters, the basis for the composition of Pre-Raphaelite paintings was not imagination, but observations and faces taken from everyday life. Members of the Brotherhood rejected the soft, idealized forms characteristic of High Renaissance artists, preferring dynamic lines and bright, rich colors.

None of the Pre-Raphaelites particularly sought to emphasize theological truths in the content of their paintings. They rather approached the Bible as a source of human drama and sought literary and poetic meaning in it. Moreover, these works were not intended for the decoration of churches.

The most devout Christian in the group was Hunt, an eccentric religious intellectual. The rest of the Pre-Raphaelite artists tried to depict the life of the most ordinary people, while simultaneously identifying acute social, moral and ethical themes of modern society. Paintings on religious themes are juxtaposed with images that are relevant and pressing. Plots dedicated to social issues, as interpreted by the Pre-Raphaelites, take the form of modern parables.

Paintings on historical themes

Paintings on historical themes play a key role in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. Traditionally, the British were not interested in exciting heroic scenes and idealized classical compositions filled with apathetic nude models. They preferred to study history through the plays of William Shakespeare and the novels of Walter Scott, and to learn the biography of great figures of the past in the theatrical images of outstanding actors such as Garrick and Sarah Siddons.

The Pre-Raphaelites rejected classical history with its ideas of exemplary virtue, military power and monarchical achievement. Turning to literary and historical subjects, they accurately depicted the costumes and interior of the chosen era, but at the same time strengthened the genre aspect, making human relationships the main motive of the composition. Before filling the picture with people, the artists carefully painted out all the details of the interior or landscape in the background to emphasize the relaxed and realistic atmosphere around the central scene. In an effort to create a believable composition, they found examples of costumes and ornaments in illuminated manuscripts and historical reference books. The features of each character are a meticulously drawn face of a model chosen from among the members of the Brotherhood. This approach rejected the accepted conventions of the high genre, but enhanced the effect of authenticity.

Pre-Raphaelite attitude to nature

The Pre-Raphaelite attitude towards nature constitutes one of the most important aspects of this movement in terms of both artistic theory and style. John Ruskin's call to "turn to nature with all your heart and walk hand in hand with her trustingly and industriously, remembering her instructions and thinking only about comprehending her meaning, without rejecting, without choosing, without ridiculing" had an undoubted influence on the Pre-Raphaelites. The young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood eagerly studied Ruskin's works on Turner's legacy, but their own style is a unique synthesis of plein air painting, exciting Shakespearean plots and topical themes of modern work. The most successful works combine detailed composition with masterful depiction of figures and complex design that combines all the elements into a coherent whole.

John Everett Millais. Valley of Eternal Peace ("The weary will find peace")

At the same time, the Pre-Raphaelites were fascinated by the latest discoveries in the field of natural sciences, which in the middle of the century were followed with great interest by the entire British society. Artists continued to compete with photography, which both complemented the images of nature they created and encouraged them to paint with even more emotion, using a bright, rich palette. By combining figures and landscape into an intricate composition, the Pre-Raphaelites emphasized the narrative element, appealing to the viewer's senses and creating mood in the painting. This is how painting guarded its borders.

Aestheticism movement, the purpose of art

At the beginning of the 1860s, a new stage began in the work of Rossetti and his associates. Young painters who joined the circle of former Pre-Raphaelites sought to realize their talent in various fields of art. However, the works created by a new group of artists and writers turned out to be no less innovative. By the mid-1860s, Pre-Raphaelism had transformed into the Aestheticism movement. The works in this section are dedicated to beauty as such.

Striving towards it, this “sole absolute goal” of art, according to Rossetti, characterizes the second decade of Pre-Raphaelite painting.

Rossetti also strove for beauty, but his goal was to create a new aesthetic ideal. During this period, the artist performed a series of works that glorify full-blooded, healthy, emphatically sensual female beauty.

The elaborate brushwork and broad strokes of paint applied with hard brushes deliberately imitate 16th-century Venetian painting and, in particular, the technique of Titian and Veronese.

Deep and rich greens, blues and dark reds replaced the Gothic stained glass transparency of the early Pre-Raphaelite palette.

Despite the relationship with the paintings of the old masters, the paintings shocked contemporaries, who furiously accused Rossetti of immorality. At the same time, the artistic interpretation of images and the semantic content of these works had a significant influence on the formation of the stylistics of Art Nouveau art.

Poetic painting of the Pre-Raphaelites

In the mid-1850s, Rossetti temporarily stopped painting and, turning to watercolor techniques, created a series of colorful and complex compositions. In these works, the artist’s passion for the Middle Ages was especially clearly demonstrated - many watercolors were created under the impression of illuminated manuscripts.

In the appearance of the tall, pale and slender heroines of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's watercolors, one can often discern the figure and features of Elizabeth Siddal.

Watercolors by a representative of the new generation of artists in Rossetti's circle, Edward Burne-Jones, resemble cloisonne enamel, reflecting their author's interest in various techniques and types of art.

Almost all watercolors were inspired by chivalric poetic novels, ballads or the work of romantic poets. At the same time, the independent nature of these works does not allow us to see in them only an illustration of a literary work. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, Rossetti created a number of works on religious subjects. The rich color palette and general arrangement of the figures reflect the influence of Venetian art, which during this period replaced the artist’s early passion for Florentine Quattrocento painting.

Pre-Raphaelite Utopia, design

Thanks to William Morris and the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., founded by him together with E. Burne-Jones, D. G. Rossetti and F. M. Brown, works of applied art had a significant impact on the development of European design in the second half of the 19th century, influenced the development of British aestheticism and gave rise to the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Morris and his associates sought to elevate the status of design to the same level as other forms of fine art. Initially, they emphasized the collective and guild nature of labor, taking as a model idealized ideas about medieval artisans. The company produced furnishings and decorations for home and church interiors: tiles, stained glass, furniture, printed fabrics, carpets, wallpaper and tapestries. Burne-Jones was considered the main artist, and Morris was responsible for the design of the ornaments. The heroes of Burne-Jones's later works do not show any emotions, their figures are frozen in motionless impassivity, so that the meaning of the plot is unclear and, as it were, hidden in dense layers of paint.

Edward Burne-Jones. Sidonia von Bork, 1560. 1860

This artist's dreamy imagery and abstract compositions provide an imaginative alternative to the extreme materialism of Victorian Britain. In this, his art undoubtedly seemed like a utopia, but a completely abstract utopia. As he himself said: “I am a born rebel, but my political views are a thousand years out of date: these are the views of the first millennium and, therefore, have no meaning.”

1.1. The arts and crafts movement and the formation of the concept of design activity / 1.2. Artistic and aesthetic values ​​of the Art Nouveau style in advertising posters in France and Great Britain / 1.3. The concept of designing a children's book as an integral organism / 1.4. Russian ballet seasons in Paris: the concept of synthesis of arts / 1.5. Satirical magazine graphics and the emergence of the social poster genre

The Arts and Crafts Movement and the formation of the concept of design activity

The formation of the concept of design as a professional and creative activity began in the pre-modern era in Great Britain. The wide dissemination and impact of the aesthetics of romanticism on public consciousness led to the fact that in this country the second half of the 19th century. was marked by the emergence of large socio-aesthetic movements that united artists, architects, writers, designers, craftsmen, concerned that, as a result of imperfect technological processes in the field of industrial production, the human visual world was increasingly filled with ugly forms. The largest of them were the Arts and Crafts Movement, led by W. Morris, and the Aesthetic Movement, the founders of which were C. Dresser and O. Jones.

The ideology of these movements was based on J. Ruskin's ideas about the need to bring art into human everyday life. He argued that “with mathematical precision, allowing no deviations and no exceptions, the art of a country, whatever it may be, serves as a criterion of its ethical state.” In his opinion, “good taste is an essentially moral quality... Taste is not only a part or a sign of moral dignity, it is the only morality. Tell me what you love, and I will tell you what you are."

According to Ruskin, art should be understood as a synthesis of nature, beauty and morality. This formula is completely transferable for design, which synthesizes the functional (going back to Nature), artistic-aesthetic (going back to Beauty) and social (going back to Good) principles of design. It is the combination of these aspects of design that makes it a means of aesthetically transforming life.

The main merit and achievement of W. Morris and the English arts and crafts movement as a whole should be considered the rooting in the public consciousness of the idea that the creation of a noble visual-objective environment can ennoble the morals of society and become an effective means of peaceful, rather than revolutionary, transformation on the basis of social justice.

The ideal of a cultural era for the romantics was not antiquity, but the national Middle Ages, the Gothic era. The idea of ​​a synthesis of arts, underlying the artistic and aesthetic solution of the Gothic cathedral, will become key to design as a type of professional and creative activity. The principle of a holistic artistic and aesthetic solution for a Gothic temple will be introduced by the first English designers into the design of a person’s everyday environment - from the visual and graphic solution of a book to the design of an “English house” as a whole.

W. Morris was one of the first to draw attention to the fact that production not only satisfies existing needs, but also creates new ones. The production of an artistically imperfect visual-objective environment not only filled the world with ugly forms, but also formed a type of aesthetically ignorant consumers. The aesthetic value of a design object was identified by W. Morris, on the one hand, with the quality of the product, and on the other, with craft technology. It was these principles that formed the basis of his design work.

For the first time in practice, W. Morris was able to put his ideas into practice in 1860, when he received an order to design the Red House in south London. The work of designing furniture, wallpaper, tapestries, and stained glass in the medieval spirit fascinated him so much that he created the company Morris, Marshall, Fawkner and Co. (1861), which became the prototype of the design organization. Very quickly, the products of the company, which was engaged in the processing of colored glass, stained glass design, embroidery on fabric, wallpaper, furniture, and weaving, began to be in high demand. Over 600 W. Morris designs were put into production, which were implemented by master craftsmen invited from all over England.

The stylistic features of W. Morris's design are determined by the aesthetics of romanticism - floral and animalistic motifs predominate in prints for wallpaper and carpets. Plant motifs could be ordered repeats (as in the case of Morris’s famous artichokes) or performed in a relaxed natural manner (the “Fruit” wallpaper); often the composition was built on the principle of symmetry of masses characteristic of the plant world (the “Woodpecker” tapestry).

When creating graphic prints, W. Morris used medieval techniques of composition using a rhombic grid and diagonal branches, while his floral patterns for fabrics, carpets, and wallpaper, which seem natural, are actually thought out in the smallest detail. In the works of W. Morris “there is always a sense of freshness and spontaneity, an amazing sense of the natural growth and abundance of nature, probably from Morris’s passionate love for nature combined with a rare ornamental gift.”

The quality and artistic level of his company's products turned out to be so high that they instantly turned the furniture, carpets, and household items they produced into luxury items. They took a long time to produce, and the materials were often too expensive. Careful work on the product required a huge amount of labor. In practice, the ideas of Morris, who dreamed of creating high-quality and beautiful household items accessible to the general population, turned out to be their opposite.

Publishing became a very important part of W. Morris's work. The imperfection of printing technologies and the sharp increase in the 19th century. demand for printed products

led to the fact that, despite the illustrations and design by good artists, the book lost its harmonious integrity. The illustrations often looked foreign in the book block; there was no harmonization of the elements of the typesetting page - sizes, proportions, fonts.

Rice. 1.1.

Rice. 1.2.

The Pre-Raphaelites were the first to realize the problem of creating a book as an integral work of art, all of whose elements are interconnected. They developed typesetting and layout techniques that ensured the harmony of images, fonts, and book ornamentation.

W. Morris played a prominent role in the revival of the art of books. His interest in the book as a design object first began in 1856, when he produced three handwritten gift copies of the poem "Story of the Glittering Plain" on parchment.

In 1890, Morris founded the Kelmscott Press printing house on the Hammersmith estate. His publishing credo is formulated in the article "Notes on My Intentions in Founding the Kelmscott Press" (1898), in which the purpose of the publishing enterprise

^THIS IS THE PICTURE OP THE OLD HOUSE BY THE THAMES TO WHICH THB PEOPLE OF THIS STORY WENT. P HEREAFTER FOLLOWS THE BOOK IT. SELF WHICH IS CALLED NEWS FROM NOWHERE OR AN EPOCH OF REST & IS WRITTEN BY WILLIAM MORRIS/?/?

Rice. 1.3.

W. Morris “News from Nowhere.” 1893 Initial page of the publication “Works

Geoffrey Chaucer." 1894

was designated as “the creation of such books that, as works of printing and due to the appearance of the typesetting page, would represent something that could bring joy to contemplation.” W. Morris believed that first of all it was necessary to pay attention to the following elements of the publication: paper (he used handmade paper), the shape of the letters, the definition of spacing between letters, individual words and lines, and the placement of the text on the spread as a whole.

New antique and Gothic fonts were cast at Morris's printing house: Kelmscott Golden, 1890 - a version of the classic typeface of the 15th century Venetian printer. N. Jenson, distinguished by a bolder style; Troy, 1891 - 1892 - based on the Gothic type by G. Zeiner, a printer from Augsburg, and A. Koberger, a printer from Nuremberg (both known as publishers of incunabula); Chaucer, 1892-12-point version of "Troy".

During the period of operation of the publishing house (1891 - 1897), 53 books were published. The circulation of each edition was about 400 copies. The first book published by Kelmscott Press was Morris's own novel, The Story of the Glittering Valley. Morris's masterpiece was The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the famous medieval writer, author of The Canterbury Tales. The book was printed in large format, beautifully ornamented and illustrated with engravings by E. Burne-Jones. 425 copies were printed on paper and 13 on parchment.

The Aesthetic Movement, unlike the Arts and Crafts Movement, had as its motto the expression “art for art’s sake” and asserted the priority of aesthetic values ​​over ethical and social issues. In addition to the medieval synthesis of arts, the aesthetic movement was largely focused on the use of motifs from Chinese and Japanese graphics, abstract geometric forms of Japanese applied art.

The most important figure in the Aesthetic Movement was Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), who began his career exploring the interaction of natural forms and ornament. In 1862, Dresser opened his studio in Kensington, London, and began working as an independent designer. In the same year, his first books on design were published - “The Art of Decorative Design” and “The Development of Ornamental Art”.

K. Dresser believed that good design should be accessible to every member of society, regardless of social status, therefore it is necessary to design products for mass production, since only in this case can they be commercially viable. The idea of ​​“art for everyone” was shared by members of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Aesthetic Movement, but both movements had a negative attitude towards mass production, while K. Dresser positively assessed the prospects of modern industry.

Dresser's wallpaper and textile prints were significantly different from those mass-produced at the time. He used a variety of sources of creative inspiration, using imitation of various materials - marble, wood cladding, fabric drapery. Rigid in their structure, Dresser's ornamental compositions were a stylization of plant, floral or geometric motifs borrowed from Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian, Greek, Arabian and Moorish art. The textiles and wallpaper created by Dresser are characterized by a muted color scheme, which the designer considered the only acceptable one in the interior.

K. Dresser created designs for the largest art and industrial companies included in the Art Manufacturers. The designer has collaborated with more than 50 companies, including the famous porcelain manufacturer Wedgwood.

K. Dresser signed his works with the words: Designed by Dr. Dresser, thus anticipating the emergence of branding. Products bearing his name became a symbol of “good design.” Committed by him in 1876-1877. on behalf of the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Museum, a trip to Japan to replenish the museum collection led to Dresser practically abandoning the use of ornament in the design of metal teapots and tableware, emphasizing material and form, thus anticipating the style preferences of the design for several decades.

In general, the decorativism of the English romantics embodied the ideas of rapid growth and abundance of nature, while a clear rejection of decoration for its own sake was formed. The activities of representatives of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Aesthetic Movement led to the fact that already in the era of the emergence of graphic design in the second half of the 19th century. universal principles of design activity were formed: design based on the synthesis of all types of arts and crafts; affirmation of the idea of ​​accessibility of beauty regardless of social status; design based on solving social problems of society; a holistic approach to the design object.

• Ruskin J. Art and reality. M.: Tipo-lit. t-va "Kushnerev and Co", 1900. P. 5.
• Nekrasova E. L. Romanticism in English art. M.: Art, 1975. P. 203.
• Morris W. A Note on My Intentions in Founding Kelmscott Press // Typography as an Art. M., 1984. P. 88.
• Cm.: Nekrasova E. A. Decree. op. P. 215.

The Aesthetic Movement is a term describing the movement of the 1870s and 1880s that manifested itself in the fine and decorative arts and architecture of Great Britain and later the United States. A reaction against what seemed prudish in art and design, the Movement was characterized by a cult of beauty and an emphasis on the pure pleasure it gave. In painting there was an idea of ​​the autonomy of art, as well as the concept of "art for art's sake", which originated in France in literature and was brought to Britain in the 1860s.

The Aesthetic Movement was championed by writers and critics Walter Pater, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Oscar Wilde. Adhering to Pater's theory, artists associated with the Movement painted paintings without a plot or without a significant plot. Dante Gabriel Rossetti drew inspiration from Venetian art because of its emphasis on color and the decorative qualities of a painting. The result of his searches were several half-length images of female figures, such as “Blue Boudoir” (1865, Barber Institute of Fine Arts).

D. Whistler “Princess from the Land of Porcelain”

The walls beneath Jekyll's elaborate partitions were covered in Spanish leather, which Whistler had painted in gold over a blue background with motifs of a peacock's eye and peacock feathers in 1877; opposite his picture hanging above the fireplace, he depicted two peacocks with luxurious plumage. In the fireplace is a pair of wrought iron fire-dogs that Jekyll made in the shape of sunflowers and peacocks. The sunflower was a signature motif of the Aesthetic Movement, appearing in tiles by William de Morgan, embroidery by C. Ashby, furniture chintz and wallpaper by Bruce Talbert, and on the painted front of a clock (1880, London, Victoria and Albert Museum), possibly based on a design by Lewis Foreman Day .

Watch, presumably based on a sketch by L.F. Day (1880, London, Victoria and Albert Museum)

William de Morgan, ceramic tiles

A common feature of the “artistic” furniture, ceramics, art forging and textiles of the “Aesthetic Movement” and the Queen Anne Style of architecture, so beloved by Godwin and Richard Norman Shaw, was the desire of their creators (manifested in the sophistication of their designs) to raise the status of their works to the status of works visual arts. They created “artistic” interior items and buildings. They both reformed and shaped taste—an important concern of William Morris, whose views, although at odds with the philosophy of the Aesthetic Movement, helped spread its influence throughout the United States. By 1870, Morris's wallpaper was being sold in Boston, and two years later, Charles Locke Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste was published in an American edition.
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Arts and Crafts - “Arts and crafts”. This artistic movement emerged in England in the 1860s as a reaction to the era of industrialization and the Industrial Revolution. It included artists, designers, architects, craftsmen and writers. The inspirer of the movement and its unofficial leader was William Morris, in which a romantic artist and a businessman, a dreamer and a politician coexisted. Morris's powerful charisma injected vital energy into the entire Arts and Crafts movement.

The main thing that members rebelled against Arts and Crafts- this is soulless machine production that deprives the worker of the joy of his work. Clumsy, tasteless things came off the assembly line with which people filled their homes - furniture, fabrics, dishes. Industrialization brought with it a general decline in artistic taste, when beauty and harmony were replaced by “prettiness.”

The goal of Arts and Crafts is things made by people and for people, pleasing both those who create them and those who use them. Hand-made household items are much better in quality and taste and cannot be compared with machine-made ones. The ideal organization of production for Arts and Crafts was the medieval guilds - when the entire process of producing a thing, from idea to final finishing, passed through the hands of a craftsman.

This movement drew artistic ideas from the European art of the Middle Ages, from Islamic art, and from the art of Japan recently discovered by Europeans. Those who shared the principles of Arts and Crafts tried themselves in different industries: they made furniture, tapestries, wallpaper, draperies, metalwork, glass and ceramics.

Basic features of the Arts and Crafts style:

• Handmade.
• Simple forms, moderation of decorations and thoughtful ornamentation. The furniture was simple, unpretentious and almost devoid of decoration, but wallpaper and fabrics were, on the contrary, very decorative.
• Emphasizing the beauty and texture of natural materials.
• Slight incompleteness of forms, their verticality and elongation.
• Ornament from plants or animals.

In the 1860s, William Morris founded the decorative arts company Morris and Co, which included his friends: Pre-Raphaelite artists Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown

and architect Philip Webb. This company, for which Morris worked until the end of his life, encouraged and sponsored the revival of traditional crafts - stained glass painting, hand embroidery, the manufacture of printed fabrics for walls and furniture, and the dyeing of silk and wool with natural dyes. Morris himself came up with strikingly beautiful patterns - for wallpaper, for printed and woolen fabrics, for embroidery. He single-handedly revived tapestry production, and tapestries based on his designs are still produced and sold in Britain.

Morris's dream was a house as a work of art. “I have never been in a single rich house that would not have been improved if nine-tenths of what was stuffed into it had gone to the fire,” said Morris. His dream came true when he, in collaboration with the architect Philip Webb, built Red House near London - Red House

(received this name because, unlike all houses of that era, it was not plastered - the walls remained of red brick), which he presented as a wedding gift to his wife Jane. The design of all interior decoration and interior was carried out according to Morris's sketches.

Although the main idea of ​​Arts and Crafts was to bring beauty into the everyday life of ordinary people, it soon turned out that they could not afford products from Morris’s workshops - the master artist needed to be paid a decent wage for his work, so it was not possible to compete with factory production in terms of product availability . However, Morris's products enjoyed continued success among wealthy clients.

Members of the Arts and Crafts movement strongly supported handicrafts not only at the professional but also at the amateur level. The Association of Home Arts and Crafts, which they created in the 1880s (which included members of the royal family), conducted master classes throughout the country and organized exhibitions.

The great merit of Arts and Crafts is that they were the first to proclaim the close connection between design and quality of life. Many features of this movement were preserved in the artistic styles that replaced it - aestheticism and modernism.

The key to understanding Arts and Crafts lies in the slogan, which was coined by another prominent member of the movement, the architect and artist Charles Voysey: "Head Hand and Heart" - "Head, hands and heart." “Head” is the ability to create and imagine, “hands” is skill and skill, “heart” is love and sincerity.

Pre-Raphaelite artists (from the Latin prae - forward, and the name "Raphael") are representatives of a movement in English poetry and painting of the mid-19th century, formed to combat established academic traditions, conventions and imitation of classical models. The main representatives of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - William Holman Hunt (1827 -1910), Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and John Everett Millais (1829-1896) - considered the painting of the early Renaissance artists who worked before Raphael worthy of admiration. The Pre-Raphaelites considered Perugino, Fra Angelico and Giovanni Bellini worthy of emulation.

Pre-Raphaelite artists against academicism

In the middle of the 19th century, the academic school in English painting was leading. In a developed industrial society, a high level of performance technology was perceived as a guarantee of quality. Therefore, the work of the academy students was quite successful and in demand by English society. But the stability of English painting has already developed into ossification, getting bogged down in conventions and repetitions. And the summer exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts became more and more predictable every year. The Royal Academy of Arts preserved the traditions of academicism and treated innovations with great caution and skepticism. Pre-Raphaelite artists did not want to depict nature and people as abstractly beautiful, they wanted to depict them truthfully and simply, believing that the only way to prevent the degradation of English painting was a return to the simplicity and sincerity of the art of the early Renaissance.

What did the Pre-Raphaelites especially dislike?

• erroneous standards of academic education
• first president of the Academy of Arts, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
• Raphael's painting "Transfiguration"
• creativity of P.P. Rubens

In Raphael's painting "The Transfiguration" the Pre-Raphaelites saw a disregard for simplicity and truth. According to W. H. Hunt, the attire of the apostles was too pompous, and the image of the Savior was devoid of spirituality.

D. G. Rosseti, hating the work of Rubens with all his soul, managed to write “Spit here” on the pages of a work on the history of art, opposite each mention and the last one.

Rafael Santi. Transfiguration

P.P. Rubens. Drunk Hercules

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Self-portrait

Creative and artistic techniques of the Pre-Raphaelites

• Bright, fresh colors

To achieve brighter and fresher tones, Pre-Raphaelite artists used new painting techniques. They painted in oils on damp white ground or on a layer of whitewash. In addition to the brightness of the colors, the chosen technique made it possible to make the artists’ works more durable - the works of the Pre-Raphaelites have been preserved in their original form to this day.

• Pure paints
• True representation of nature

Having abandoned “cabinet painting”, young artists began to paint in nature and attached great importance to fine detailing.

“I want to paint a landscape, depicting every detail I can see” (W. Hunt)

• Focus on the art of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance
• Using relatives, friends and people from the street as models, rather than professional models.

An illiterate girl, Fanny Cornforth, posed for Dante Rossetti’s famous painting “Lady Lilith.” The painting “The Youth of the Virgin Mary” depicts the mother and sister of the artist Dante Rossetti. For the painting “Ophelia” the artist D.E. Millais chose the moment in Shakespeare's tragedy when Ophelia threw herself into the river, slowly sank into the water and sang snatches of songs. First, the artist painted a picturesque river corner, and he painted the figure of a girl already in the winter months. Elizabeth Siddal, wearing a luxurious antique dress, spent many hours in a bath of warm water. At one point the lamps heating the water went out, but the girl did not complain and became seriously ill. Subsequently, Elizabeth Siddal's father sent the artist an invoice to pay for his daughter's treatment.

• Symbolism

Pre-Raphaelite paintings are characterized by many details endowed with a certain meaning or symbol. For example, in the painting by D.E. Millet's "Ophelia" depicts many flowers. Daisies symbolize pain, chastity and betrayed love, ivy is a sign of immortality and eternal rebirth, willow is a symbol of rejected love, poppies are a traditional symbol of death.

Dante Rossetti. Lady Lilith

D.G. Rossetti. The Youth of the Virgin Mary

D.E. Millet. Ophelia

Pre-Raphaelite artists. Main subjects and famous paintings.

If we look at the work of the Pre-Raphaelites superficially, then the first thing that appears to us when they are mentioned are the tragic figures of red-haired women embodying the images of famous literary heroines. But the true source of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was the rebellion against aesthetic conventions and the desire to truthfully and accurately depict reality.

The main themes of the work of the Pre-Raphaelites:

• medievalism (history of the Middle Ages), King Arthur
• cult of female beauty
• Shakespeare's work
• works of Dante Alighieri
• Jesus Christ
• social problems

Medievalism, King Arthur in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites

The works of the Pre-Raphaelites are filled with spiritual symbolism, referring us to the ideals of chivalry, Christian virtues and exploits. Against the backdrop of the moral decline that reigned in England in the mid-19th century, these paintings looked idyllic. But it was precisely the knightly subjects and images, according to the artists of the Brotherhood, that were supposed to overcome the decline and solve the social problems of England.

The stories about King Arthur were especially popular. The Pre-Raphaelites found abundant materials about King Arthur in the poetry of A. Tennyson. The favorite characters in Pre-Raphaelite paintings were Galahad and Elaine, Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur, Merlin and the Maiden of the Lake.

D.G. Rossetti. Virgin of the Holy Grail. 1874

E. Coley Burne-Jones. Enchanted Merlin. 1877

D. W. Waterhouse. Lady of Shalott, 1888

The works of Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri in the paintings of Pre-Raphaelite artists

To understand the meaning of some Pre-Raphaelite paintings, it is necessary to turn to their literary basis. Turning to the text will allow you to more fully reveal the features and patterns of the embodiment of a particular image.

The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to raise painting to the level of literature and poetry and introduce an intellectual element into the fine arts.

Pre-Raphaelite artists often turned to literary and historical subjects in their work. And the works of Shakespeare and Dante, in whose literary works the drama of human relationships is so vividly shown, occupies a special place in their painting. The creators tried to depict the scene as accurately as possible from a historical point of view. To create the most natural composition around the main scene, they carefully painted the background, filling it with interior or landscape details. Filling the picture with the characters of the plot, they carefully studied samples of costumes and ornaments in historical reference books. But, despite such pedantry in depicting external details, human relationships always remained the center of the composition.

D. W. Waterhouse. Miranda and Storm

F.M. Brown. Romeo and Juliet. The famous balcony scene

D.G. Rossetti. Visions of Dante

D.G. Rossetti. Dante's Love

D.G. Rosstetti. Blessed Beatrice. 1864-1870

Religious and social subjects in the works of the Pre-Raphaelites.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought to revive the traditions of religious painting without resorting to the conventional images of Catholic altar paintings. However, young artists did not seek to emphasize theological truths in their canvases. They approached the Bible as a source of human drama. These works, naturally, were not intended for the decoration of churches and had a literary and poetic rather than a religious meaning.

Over time, the work of young reformers began to be reproached for too free interpretations of religious subjects. Millet's painting "Christ in the Parental House" depicts the ascetic environment in the carpenter's house. In the background are grazing sheep. The Savior wounded his palm with a nail, and the Mother of God consoles him. The canvas is filled with many meanings: the sheep are an innocent victim, the bleeding hand is a sign of the future crucifixion, the cup of water carried by John the Baptist is a symbol of the Baptism of the Lord. Because the Holy Family is depicted in Milles’s painting “Christ in the Parental House” in the image of ordinary people, critics called this painting “The Carpenter’s Workshop.” Queen Victoria wanted to personally verify that there was no blasphemy in the painting and asked for the painting to be delivered to her. The artist decided to rename the painting just in case.

By depicting the life of ordinary people on their canvases, the Pre-Raphaelites identified the moral and ethical problems of modern society. Often social subjects in Pre-Raphaelite paintings take the form of religious parables.

D.W. Waterhouse. Fate. 1900

The cult of female beauty on the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

On the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites, female images received a new development. Femininity was seen as an indivisible combination of physicality, attractiveness, symbolism and spirituality at the same time. The peculiarity of the depiction of women was the simultaneous combination of realism and fantasy of the image. On the canvases of young artists, the literary images of Shakespeare, Keats, Chatterton and others acquired physicality without losing their mystery. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to make accessible to the eye the image of a woman described in romantic literature.

D.G. Rossetti. Proserpina

D.W. Waterhouse. Pick your roses quickly. 1909

W. Hunt. Isabella and the Pot of Basil 1868

Pre-Raphaelites and John Ruskin

The pioneer and supporter of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was the prominent and significant art theorist John Ruskin. At that moment, when an avalanche of criticism fell on young artists, he supported the artists both morally - by writing an article in defense of a new direction in painting, and financially - by purchasing several paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites.

Everyone took John Ruskin's opinion into account, so very soon the paintings of talented young people became popular. What was so special that the venerable art theorist found in these paintings? On the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites, John Ruskin saw a living and creative embodiment of those ideas about which he wrote so much in his works:

• insight into the essence of nature
• attention to detail
• rejection of imposed conventions and canons
• idealization of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance

The famous critic wrote several articles for The Times, where he highly praised the artists’ work. Ruskin published a brochure about these masters, which served as a turning point in their fate. At the 1852 academic exhibition, Hunt's The Hired Shepherd and Millais's Ophelia were received positively.

Pre-Raphaelites. Arts and Crafts Movement. Art Nouveau style

Each Pre-Raphaelite artist was looking for his own creative path and love for the Middle Ages was no longer enough to keep the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood together. The final discord occurred in 1853, when Millais became a member of the Royal Academy, which the Pre-Raphaelites so vehemently opposed.

In 1856, Rossetti met with William Morris, the leader of the Arts and Crafts movement, who later influenced the formation of. W. Morris, together with Edward Burne-Jones, became Rossetti's students. From this moment on, a new stage of the “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood” begins; the main idea now becomes the aestheticization of forms, eroticism, the cult of beauty and artistic genius.

Rossetti's mental and physical health gradually deteriorated and Edward Burne-Jones now became the leader of the movement. Creating works in the spirit of the early Pre-Raphaelites, he became extremely popular.

William Morris becomes a central figure in the decorative arts of the 19th century, and the Art Nouveau style, one of the sources of which was Pre-Raphaelitism, penetrates not only the decorative arts, but also furniture, interior decoration, architecture, and book design.

Pre-Raphaelite artists. Main representatives

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

He was born into a petty-bourgeois family of intellectuals on May 12, 1828. The year 1848 was significant for the artist, since at an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts he met William Holman Hunt. Joint creativity led to the creation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
He married the muse and popular Pre-Raphaelite model Elizabeth Siddal. In the period 1854-1862 he was a teacher in the first municipal educational institution where the lower classes were educated. In 1881, the artist's health began to deteriorate. The resort of Birchington-on-Sea became the artist's final refuge. Death opened its arms to him on April 9, 1882.

Style features

Characteristic features of Gabriel Rossetti's style were multidimensional perspective and detailed elaboration of each part of the picture. In the author's works, the spirituality and greatness of man comes to the fore.

Main paintings

"The Youth of the Virgin Mary";
"Annunciation";
"Inscriptions on the sand";
Sir Galahad at the Ruined Chapel;
"Dante's Love"
"Blessed Beatrice";
"Monna Vanna";
"Pia de Tolomei";
"Viammetta's Vision"
"Pandora";
"Proserpina".

D.G. Rossetti. Venus Verticordia

D.G. Rosstetti. Beatrice blessed

D.G. Rossetti. King Arthur's Tomb

William Holman Hunt

W.H. Hunt Self-Portrait, 1867

One of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was distinguished from other artists in the community by his religiosity. From birth he had the name William Hobman Hunt, but later independently replaced it with a pseudonym. The painting “Light of the World” brought fame to the artist.

He wrote an autobiographical work, Pre-Raphaelitism, the purpose of which was to leave accurate information about the founding of the Brotherhood. He married Fanny Waugh, after whose death he remarried her sister Edith Alice. This union brought him disapproval from society.

Style features

The surrounding world is surrounded by picturesque nature, all the details of which are aimed at enhancing the internal state of the image. A feature of Holman Hunt's works are soft transitions of halftones and rich combinations of colors.

Main paintings

• "Light of the World";
• "The Lady of Shalott"
• "Claudio and Isabella";
• The Festival of St. Swithin;
• "The Descent of the Holy Fire";
• "Scapegoat";
• "The shadow of death";
• "Knock."

W. H. Hunt. Scapegoat. 1856

W. H. Hunt. Knock

W.H. Hunt. The shadow of death

John Everett Millais

D.E. Millet. Self-portrait

At the age of eleven he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (1840). Considered to be the youngest student in the history of the institution. By the age of fifteen he showed special skills in working with a brush. His work in the academic style, “Pizarro Captures the Peruvian Incas,” was honored to be exhibited at the summer academic exhibition of 1846.

For his work “The Attack of the Tribe of Benjamin on the Daughters of Siloam” he was awarded a gold medal in 1847. After meeting Dante, Gabriel Rossetti and Hlman Hunt joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The work that made him famous was the painting “Ophelia”, the model for which was the Pre-Raphaelite muse and future wife of D.G. Rossetti Elizabeth Siddal.

In 1855, John Everett Millais married John Ruskin's ex-wife Effie, immediately after her high-profile divorce from the latter. From that time on, he completely moved away from the “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood” and created popular paintings in the academic style. In 1896, he was elected president of the Royal Academy of Arts, the struggle against the basic principles of which was one of the unifying principles for the Pre-Raphaelite artists.

Style features

The pronounced features of the style are the inheritance of Raphael's technique. Perspective is based on the play of light and shadow. The artist used a muted palette, highlighting the accents with bright details and creating an atmosphere of action.

Main paintings

• “Pizarro captures the Peruvian Incas”;
• “The attack of the tribe of Benjamin on the daughters of Siloam”;
• "Ophelia";
• Cherry Ripe;
• "The Death of Romeo and Juliet."

D.E. Millet. Ophelia

D. E. Millet. Christ in his parents' house

D.E. Millet. Pizarro captures the Peruvian Incas

Madox Brown

A prominent representative of Pre-Raphaelitism, but was not a member of the brotherhood. He supported the ideas of Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris. Together with the latter he was involved in the development of stained glass design.

Studied at the Academy of Arts (Bruges). Later he moved to Ghent, then to Antwerp. The painting “The Execution of Mary of Scotland,” painted in 1840, brought fame. He relied on the romantic direction of artists of the Early Renaissance. Most of the stories were devoted to religious and spiritual themes.

Style features

In his works, the artist sought to achieve a clear description of the plot and convey the truth of life. Reproduction of the drama of events is achieved by contrasts of colors and expressiveness of poses.

Main paintings

• "The Execution of Mary of Scots";
• “Christ washing the feet of the Apostle Peter”;
• "Farewell to England";
• "The Death of Sir Tristram."

F. M. Brown. Romeo and Juliet. The famous balcony scene

F.M. Brown. Farewell to England

F.M. Brown. Work

Edward Burne-Jones

Illustrator and painter, close in the spirit of the plot and presentation to the Pre-Raphaelites. Known for his work on stained glass. He received his primary education at King Edward's School.

In 1848, he entered additional training at evening courses at the government school of design. He met William Maurice at Oxford University (1853). Inspired by the ideas of the Brotherhood, he abandoned the theological direction and began an in-depth study of drawing techniques. He dedicated his works to the romantic legends of England.

Style features

The artist preferred the emphasis on the naked male body. The presentation of perspective through the color scheme creates a feeling of flatness. The contrasting play of chiaroscuro is completely absent. The emphasis is on lines, the favorite colors are the gold and orange spectrum.

Main paintings

• "Annunciation";
• "Enchanted Merlin";
• "Golden Staircase";
• "Book of Flowers";
• "Love among the ruins."

E. Burne-Jones. Love among the ruins.

E. Coley Burne-Jones. King Cofetua and the beggar woman. 1884

Burne-Jones. Enchanted Merlin

William Morris

W. Morris. self-portrait

English novelist, artist, poet and socialist. Considered the largest representative of the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites, the recognized unofficial leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
A wealthy family was able to give the artist a good education. Out of passion for the Middle Ages and the Tractarian movement, he became friends with Edward Burne-Jones.
The main plot lines in W. Morris's paintings were the legend of King Arthur. The collection “The Defense of Guinevere and Other Poems”, published in 1858, was dedicated to this idea.
Since 1859 he lived in an official marriage with Jane Burden. She became his model for many of his paintings.