Cambridge University Press
0521824680 - Pre-Raphaelite Painting and Nineteenth-Century Realism - by Marcia Werner
Frontmatter/Prelims



PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTING AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY REALISM

This book reconsiders and revises our understanding of Pre-Raphaelite painting: its philosophy of art, its sources, its cohesiveness, and its relationship to the broader context of contemporary European Realism. Challenging several long-standing beliefs about the PRB, which is often characterized as a disparate group who pursued divergent, even antithetical, goals, Marcia Werner proposes that the Pre-Raphaelites developed and shared an artistic philosophy comprehensive enough to embrace all of their differences. Werner reconstructs this credo through careful study of writings by Pre-Raphaelite artists and their associates. She also examines unexplored and neglected contemporary intellectual and philosophical sources, particularly those of John Stuart Mill and Thomas Carlyle, whose works are shown to be critical to an understanding of Pre-Raphaelite painting. Supporting her ideas through sustained analyses of key works, the author also argues that John Ruskin’s importance to the Pre-Raphaelites has been misunderstood and overstated.

Marcia Werner is Adjunct Associate Professor of Art History at Temple University in Philadelphia.







Pre-Raphaelite
Painting and
Nineteenth-Century
Realism




MARCIA WERNER
Temple University







PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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© Marcia Werner 2005

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2005

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typefaces Sabon 10/14 pt. and ITC Clearface      System LATEX 2e   [TB]

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Werner, Marcia
Pre-Raphaelite painting and nineteenth-century realism / Marcia Werner.
p.  cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-82468-0
1. Pre-Raphaelitism. 2. Realism in art – Europe. 3. Art, European – 19th century.
I. Title: Pre-Raphaelite painting and 19th-century realism. II. Title.
N6917.5.P7W47   2004
759.05′3 – dc22      2004045654

ISBN 0 521 82468 0 hardback







For my family,

Martin, Aaron, Rachel, John, Isaac, Naomi, Judah, and Samuel

With affection







Contents




List of Illustrations      ix
Acknowledgments      xiii
 
Introduction      1
 
Part One. Theory      14
1. Received Opinion      14
2. John Ruskin      18
3. Modern Painters II: The Theoretic Faculty      20
4. Modern Painters II: The Imaginative Faculty      32
5. Ruskin’s Pre-Raphaelitism      44
6. Pre-Raphaelite Assessment of Ruskin’s Influence      52
7. The Germ      58
8. William Michael Rossetti: History and Time in Pre-Raphaelite Art      73
9. The Interconnection of Sacred and Secular in Pre-Raphaelitism      90
10. William Michael Rossetti’s Review Articles      93
11. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism and British Empiricism      103
12. Thomas Carlyle and The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine      116
Review      136
 
Part Two. Practice      141
 
Introduction to Part II      141
 
13. The Shared Vision of Pre-Raphaelite Realism      143
14. Dante Gabriel Rossetti and French Realism      151
15. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Realism in Early Pre-Raphaelite Poetry      159
16. “Hand and Soul” and “St. Agnes of Intercession”      165
17. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Paintings and Drawings      174
18. Found      187
19. John Everett Millais      211
20. William Holman Hunt      224
21. The Lady of Shalott      233
22. May Morning on Magdalen Tower      241
23. Ford Madox Brown      248
24. Work and Cromwell on his Farm      255
 
Conclusion      265
 
Bibliography      275
 
Index      283






Illustrations




1   Ford Madox Brown, Pretty Baa Lambs. page 17
2   Tintoretto, Jacopo Robusti, Crucifixion. 23
3   John Everett Millais, Ophelia. 25
4   John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents (The Carpenter's Shop). 44
5   William Holman Hunt, The Shadow of Death. 45
6   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation). 70
7   William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience. 77
8   Ford Madox Brown, Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet. 80
9   Ford Madox Brown, Oure Ladye of Good Children. 81
10   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Study for the Wedding of St. George and the Princess Sabra. 86
11   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Wedding of St. George and the Princess Sabra. 86
12   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sketch for Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee. 87
13   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Study for Beata Beatrix. 87
14   John Everett Millais, A Dream of the Past – Sir Isumbras at the Ford. 89
15   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin. 93
16   William Holman Hunt, Our English Coasts (Strayed Sheep). 95
17   Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England. 102
18   William Holman Hunt, Portrait of Rossetti, 1853. 148
19   William Holman Hunt, Portrait of Rossetti, 1882. 149
20   John Everett Millais, The Bridesmaid. 151
21   Gavarni (Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier), The Matchgirl. 153
22   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beggar and Woman. 154
23   Tony Johannot, La fileuse. Frontispiece illustration for Charles Nodier’s Trilby. 155
24   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sleeper. 156
25   Gustave Courbet, The Sleeping Spinner. 157
26   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sonnet. 175
27   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpin. 178
28   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice (Dante Drawing an Angel). 179
29   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Giotto Painting a Portrait of Dante. 183
30   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Writing on the Sand. 185
31   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Found. 188
32   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Study for Found, 1853. 189
33   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Study for Found, ca. 1855. 191
34   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Study for Hamlet and Ophelia. 193
35   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hamlet and Ophelia. 194
36   William Holman Hunt, The Light of the World. 200
37   Leonardo da Vinci, Sketch of Flying Bird and Sprouting Tree Stump. 201
38   Sampler, 1826. 204
39   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hesterna Rosa. 205
40   Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee. 207
41   Master of the Lehman Crucifixion, Noli me Tangere. 209
42   John Everett Millais, Mariana in the Moated Grange. 213
43   John Everett Millais, Lorenzo and Isabella. 215
44   William Holman Hunt, Isabella and the Pot of Basil. 217
45   John Everett Millais, The Woodman’s Daughter. 219
46   John Everett Millais, Autumn Leaves. 222
47   John Everett Millais, The Vale of Rest. 223
48   William Holman Hunt, The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple. 225
49   William Holman Hunt, The Hireling Shepherd. 226
50   William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott. 234
51   William Holman Hunt, Study for The Lady of Shalott. 236
52   William Blake, Job and His Daughters, Illustrations of the Book of Job. 239
53   William Holman Hunt, May Morning on Magdalen Tower, Oxford. 242
54   William Holman Hunt, Claudio and Isabella. 247
55   Ford Madox Brown, Manfred on the Jungfrau. 250
56   Ford Madox Brown, Take Your Son, Sir! 254
57   Ford Madox Brown, Work. 256
58   Ford Madox Brown, Cromwell on his Farm. 259






Acknowledgments




To begin at the beginning, I am indebted to Charles Dempsey and Elizabeth Cropper, whose help and encouragement were crucial to my academic career. My engagement with issues related to Realism originated in a seminar on that subject taught by Steven Z. Levine, my dissertation advisor at Bryn Mawr College. I thank him for his kindness to me as a student. My good friends Martin Eidelberg and Therese Dolan have been unfailingly interested in and supportive of this project during its long evolution. Virginia Surtees provided valuable help in locating works, and Sheila Paine and Katharine Macdonald graciously obtained important photographs for me. I wish I could acknowledge more specifically the anonymous reader for Cambridge University Press who so generously provided me with extensive and extremely helpful commentary. I have benefited, too, from the assistance of Madeline Davis, secretary to the Department of Art History at Temple University; Andrea Goldstein, art librarian at Tyler School of Art; and Johanna Inman, photographer to the slide library at Tyler. I am also very grateful to Beatrice Rehl for the editorial skill and patience she has brought to this project. I am happy to have an opportunity to acknowledge Harriet and Allan Berman for making their home mine during research trips to New York, Tossi Aaron for advice in botanical matters, Judy Oberhausen and Dennis T. Lanigan for help with sources, and my daughter, Rachel Rose, for her ever-cheerful assistance with computer problems.

   My husband, Martin Werner, read each of the many drafts of this work with his usual care and acuity. In this endeavor, as in so much else, he has been, to borrow a Rossettian phrase, “the one necessary person.” Heartfelt thanks.





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