The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848 by artists who wanted to create art using a different lens than that of the Royal Academy. They had a strong desire to approach art with a radically different mentality than that of their current time. In the beginning, these art students found a shared joy of the natural world, contempt for the Academy's use of Renaissance ideals, and a desire to become the “corruptors of perfection.”(Shrewsbury, 30) Upon discovery of their secret society, the group was not positively received by the public and was subject to much criticism and hostility. The famous art historian John Ruskin proved to be one of the only voices to publicly support the artists in the midst of their rejection and was known as a dedicated patron. However, even with the dissolution of the group in the early 1850s, their ideas persevered and gradually began to influence the following generation artists.  

In these upcoming sections, we will be focusing on the three most famous Pre-Raphaelite artists: John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Holman Hunt. They created some of the most iconic pieces of this time and are easily recognizable by the public today. Armed with their historical context and historical/artful thinking techniques, we will examine their lives and the artwork that came about as a result.