The purpose of the artist’s Muse is manifold. That elusive being who showers inspiration on man and bathes in the glory of the artists recreation. The Pre Raphaelites had an eye for these beautiful women and celebrated their beauty with paint – if not always by deed (you know who you are Mr Rossetti). I came across this video which is accompanied by the most wonderful music, featuring Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris (the more well-known of the Muses). The artists include Burne-Jones, Millais, Rossetti and Waterhouse: timeless art.
I’ve just come across this video about the ever popular Pre-Raphaelite painters. Some of the artists, I am not familiar with – Edward Roberts Hughes and Charles Lock Eastlake are two of them. But the video is just the thing to transport the spirit into another age (Victorian)- then into yet another age (the ancient world of myth). It just goes to show that a good story never dies and shall always linger on in our collective romantic memory:-) The video is rather long and the music is by Vengellis (not a fan) but the paintings both recognised and unfamiliar are a veritable feast for the eyes 🙂
Pre- Raphaelite fans will be delighted with the art world’s latest find. It’s a previously unseen drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of William Morris’s wife Jane. The drawing which has been in a private collection shall go on display in January next year. It is a full-scale pastel drawing called Mnemosyne. The actual painting is on display in the Delaware Art Museum. The drawing will be shown at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Jane Morris‘s beauty came to typify the Pre -Raphaelite idea of classical beauty. Morris and Elizabeth Siddal are immortalised in their art.
The drawing study for the 1881 painting Mnemosyne which will go on display next year
Much has been wrote about the Pre- Raphaelite brotherhood which were founded in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais. The brotherhood consisted of critics, poets and painters. William Michael Rossetti (brother to Gabriel) James Collinson, Frederick George Stephens, and Thomas Woolner made up the seven original members – other artists were added later. The Pre -Raphaelites believed that the classical poses and compositions of Raphael in particular had a corrupting influence on academic art teaching. Joshua Reynolds, (whom they nicknamed ‘Sloshua’) came in for some criticism for his painting technique which the Pre -Raphaelites considered ‘sloppy and formulaic form of academic Mannerism’. They wished to return art to use of abundant detail and rich bright colours seen in Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art.
Isabella and the pot of Basil by Holman Hunt
The Brotherhood’s early doctrines were expressed in four declarations:
to have genuine ideas to express;
to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express them;
to sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote;
and, most indispensable of all, to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues
Christ in the House of his Parents by Millais
One of my favorite Pre -Raphaelites is John William Waterhouse,a later Pre- Raphaelite. I have included him here, to take the place of non painter William Micheal Rossetti.
work by Ford Maddox Brown
To Let by Collinson
The critic and champion of the P.R. was John Ruskin and although an exquisite draftsman, but I haven’t included him this time. I have however, included Ford Maddox Brown instead of Frederick George Stephens, as Stephens was the Pre- Raphaelites promoter, rather than artist.
The Beguiling of Merlin by Burne-Jones
Thomas Woolner is also ommitted as he was a sculptor rather than painter. He has been replaced byEdward Burne-Jones.
The Pre- Raphaelites were no strangers to scandal and Millais painting of the Virgin Mary (Christ in the House of his Parents) in 1850 came in for severe criticism by the writer Charles Dickens;-
“According to Dickens, Millais made the Holy Family look like alcoholics and slum-dwellers, adopting contorted and absurd “medieval” poses’.”
Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse
Dickens of course had a lot to say about most things and for the most part said it well. But here is an opportunity for you to have your say in my ‘What the Dickens?’ poetry challenge over on Bookstains – just click Dickens for details:-)
More about this Pre Raphaelite painting here More on the Pre- Raphaelites here Images;- Millais here Holman Hunt here Collinson image here Burne-Jones image here John William Waterhouse image from here – Thanks to all!
Children’s poetry was always a little frightening when I was growing up. I was thinking about this recently and I wondered was it because I was a child and had too much childish imagination or were these poems actually frightening? So I decided to revisit one and find out….
A particular poem ‘Up the Airy Mountains’ or ‘The Fairies’ as it is known used to terrify the wits out of me. But the terror was actually exciting, something that you looked at through your fingers – an experience to be repeated many times. This poem still gives me tingles even after all these years.
Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather.
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.
High on the hill-top
The old King sits;
He is now so old and gray
He’s nigh lost his wits.
With a bridge of white mist
Columbkill he crosses,
On his stately journeys
From Slieveleague to Rosses;
Or going up with music,
On cold starry nights,
To sup with the Queen,
Of the gay Northern Lights.
They stole little Bridget
For seven years long;
When she came down again
Her friends were all gone.
They took her lightly back
Between the night and morrow;
They thought she was fast asleep,
But she was dead with sorrow.
They have kept her ever since
Deep within the lake,
On a bed of flag leaves,
Watching till she wake.
By the craggy hill-side,
Through the mosses bare,
They have planted thorn trees
For pleasure here and there.
Is any man so daring
As dig them up in spite?
He shall find the thornies set
In his bed at night.
Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather.
— William Allingham
Of all the fairies, its White Owls feather that seems the most dangerous one. I don’t know why though – maybe it’s because the others are colourful and he is just represented as a feather – a menacing feather (silly I know). The thought of the frogs with their bulging eyes acting as watchdogs gives an indication of how small the fairies are and this ties in with their spitefulness too – planting thorns in peoples beds! I do quite like the idea of the crispy pancakes made of yellow tide foam though,. It paints a picture of the tide coming in and when it leaves a small pancake full of bubbles has been delivered. The poor King with his lost wits is bad enough, but when they steal little Bridget – well that’s just a bit too much – a step too far. They think that she’s fast asleep but she is really dead with sorrow! What a horrific image this is to a small child! It makes one terrified to go to sleep (until next time….) And yet – they do watch over her hoping that she will wake, which makes me believe that they didn’t kill her at least….
helen-allingham
William Allingham (1824 – 89) was an established Irish poet, a man of letters who moved in artistic circles and was a friend of D.G. Rossetti. He married Helen Paterson (better known as Helen Allingham, (b. 1848 1926) the artist. She was a Victorian watercolourist. Her work is unmistakable and much influenced by the Pre Raphaelites. She worked first as an illustrator for the Graphic weekly magazine and when she got married devoted more of her time to her true love of water colours. Several of her pictures were admitted to the Royal Academy Summer exhibition 1874 (the Milkmaid and Wait for me). She later became the first woman to be admitted full membership of the Royal Watercolourist Society in 1875..
Please don’t be offended if I don’t answer your posts for a couple of days, I am away for a few days so have scheduled quite a few posts. I promise to reply to any comments when I get back.
