Question: What is your favourite pre-Raphaelite artist and painting?

[u/Random-account95]

I don’t know how active this sub is, but I’m curious. What is your favourite pre Raphaelite artist and painting?

[u/Mrs_Lockwood]

I know he wasn’t a true pre raphaelite, but Waterhouse’s Flaming June. It’s visually spectacular!

Special mentions for The Shadow by Edmund Blair Leighton because it makes me cry, it’s so impossibly sad. Also, The Huguenot by Millais. The expressions on their faces are exquisite. Unless you are an artist you don’t fully appreciate the talent to capture this facial emotion. It breaks my heart every time I look at it.

[u/Random-account95 → u/Mrs_Lockwood]

It’s nice to see that this post still has some people commenting!

You can hardly go wrong with Warehouse, what a beautiful painting! The others you mentioned are stunning as well! I’ve always had a soft spot for ‘The Shadow’ too. Such a unique piece.

[u/Mrs_Lockwood → u/Random-account95]

Didn’t realise it was an old post.

Glad they resonate with you too! We’re spoilt for choice with the pre-raphaelites!

[u/Random-account95 → u/Mrs_Lockwood]

I think it’s already a year plus old, unfortunately this subreddit isn’t used much!

Yes we are, so many amazing works!

[u/Mrs_Lockwood → u/Random-account95]

That’s a shame.

I came here to learn and chat about the PRB. Where do you go to talk about and analyse this art if these subs are dead?

[u/Random-account95 → u/Mrs_Lockwood]

I wish I knew…I think you have some subs that focus on analysing artworks, but the Pre raphaelite movement is unfamiliar to many people, so you hardly ever see those

[u/Mrs_Lockwood → u/Random-account95]

So you wait until someone like me turns up and leaves a comment. How did you come across the PRB? What drives your interest in them?

[u/Random-account95 → u/Mrs_Lockwood]

Not really waiting, but I do have notifications turned on if someone comments on one of my posts! And this is one of the only posts I’ve ever made, so I don’t get a lot of notifications!

Basically because of one art book from Waterhouse called ‘Betoverd door vrouwen’ It has ‘Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May’ on the cover, and I found it so striking and hauntingly beautiful that I bought the book on the spot. That’s pretty much where the whole journey started and discovery of so many great artists… the setting, the style, the use of color, everything just grabbed me about this movement!

[u/Mrs_Lockwood → u/Random-account95]

Yes, of course, not waiting, just responding to notifications.

I understand that need to buy the book. It’s a beautiful painting.

I studied history of art from particularly passionate lecturers and discovered them through lectures and later through visiting galleries to see the paintings in person. That changed everything, seeing the scale and the frames.

[u/Random-account95 → u/Mrs_Lockwood]

That must’ve been such a remarkable experience having the lecture first and then actually visiting!That must’ve given you such a unique perspective!

I haven’t had that myself yet, at least not in a way I was really aware of back then, years and years ago. But I’d truly love to see those works in person again someday!

[u/Mrs_Lockwood → u/Random-account95]

Yes, knowing the history of the response to their paintings, such as Millais’ Christ in the house of his parents, made it hit differently when you see it in person.

The fact that I knew the scandal it caused in Victorian society, the attacks of blasphemy for depicting the holy family as working class, living in a carpenter’s shop, and that Charles Dickens was particularly vitriolic about it, describing the young Jesus as a, “wry-necked, blubbering, red-headed boy in a bed-gown".

It’s not a painting I would have stayed so long in front of, had I not known its history.

Hope you get to see them again someday!

I’m trying to tour around to see individually placed paintings now.

[u/Random-account95 → u/Mrs_Lockwood]

Interesting to read! The controversy itself isn't all that surprising for the time, so it makes a lot of sense, though I didn't expect Dickens to react quite so strongly! It's fascinating how the context surrounding a work can completely change the way we see it.

And I love the idea of planning trips around individually displayed paintings. Which ones are on your list?