In 1848 a group of seven disillusioned artists, comprising the Rossettis, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Frederic Stephens, Thomas Wooner, and James Collinson, formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Initially they were ridiculed in the art world for their pretension and subject matter, but ten years after their foundation no self-respecting Victorian would admit to being ignorant of Pre-Raphaelite art.
The movement later began to change direction as new influences were brought to bear on the group; Dante Gabriel Rossetti came to the fore alongside artists such as Walter Howell Deverell and Edward Burne-Jones, as well as William Morris, the founding father of the Arts and Crafts movement. Essential Pre-Raphaelitesexamines the work of the movement, its loosely affiliated personalities, diverse subject matter, and profound effect on nineteenth-and twentieth-century art.
