THE PRE-RAPHAELITES
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (or PRB) was a 19th century group of rebellious young
artists who, disillusioned with the artistic climate of their day, sought to rediscover the
purity of art by creating an entirely new artistic style that drew upon the middle ages, the
bible, classical mythology and nature for inspiration, emulating the work of the great
Italian artists before Raphael (hence their name: pre-Raphaelite).
The PRB only lasted for five or so years, but it served to inspire many other painters such
as Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Waterhouse throughout the rest of the 19th
century and into the early 20th century.
the Pre-raphaelite collection
This site aims to present an overview of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, from its inception in
1848, to its revival in the 1880s and its conclusion in the early 1920s. The artists included in
this collection represent the three phases of Pre-Raphaelitism, although some of the later
artists (eg Waterhouse, Burne-Jones, Alma-Tadema) may be more accurately classified as
belonging to the aesthetic, symbolist or classical movements rather than to
Pre-Raphaelitism. 
