The Pre-raphaelite Brotherhood Blue Plaque

About This Blue Plaque

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The young men met as students at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and bonded over their shared dissatisfaction with the state of British art. They believed that the classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael had been a corrupting influence on academic teaching, leading to a general decline in standards.

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 sympathize 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 to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues. Their distinctive style was characterized by bright colors, abundant detail, and a romanticized portrayal of both literary subjects and nature.

The Brotherhood was controversial from the start and faced opposition from the art establishment. However, they found a champion in the influential art critic John Ruskin, who praised their devotion to nature and rejection of conventional methods of composition. Over time, the Pre-Raphaelite movement evolved and expanded, influencing the arts and crafts movement and the development of British painting through the early 20th century. Notable later followers included Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. The plaque at 7 Gower Street in London’s Camden borough marks the location where the original Brotherhood first convened to pursue their revolutionary approach to art.