The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of young English artists founded in London in 1848, whose leading members were Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt. They rejected the academic conventions of their day, which they traced back to Raphael, and sought instead the sincerity, vivid colour and close observation they admired in earlier Italian and Northern art.
The Brotherhood's paintings are characterised by brilliant colour, minute detail painted from nature, and subjects drawn from the Bible, medieval legend, Shakespeare and contemporary poetry. Supported by the critic John Ruskin, the group was influential well beyond its short formal existence. Rossetti's later work, and his association with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, carried Pre-Raphaelite ideas into a second phase that fed directly into the decorative arts, including stained glass, tapestry, furniture and book design produced by Morris's firm. The movement also shaped the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements. Original paintings and drawings are rare and command high prices, but prints, illustrated books, photographs and decorative objects in the Pre-Raphaelite manner are more accessible. The style continues to inspire interiors with rich colour, medieval references and romantic imagery.
