A Sanctuary for Sisterhood

In 1848, a group of idealistic young British artists formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Contrary to what their moniker implied, the lives and works of the Pre-Raphaelites were indelibly shaped and formed by the women in their circle.

The PreRaphaeliteSisterhood.com site aims to elevate and discuss female Pre-Raphaelite painters, poets, and models and the world they lived in. Join us on a rollicking ride and an ebullient exploration of 19th century art – and what it reveals about our culture today.

Everyone is welcome here. If you are curious about the women of the Pre-Raphaelite era, please consider yourself part of our present-day Pre-Raphaelite sisterhood!

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New to this site? Navigating Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood is a good starting point.

Women in the Pre-Raphaelite Circle offers an overview of key figures.

Jump into the Blog.

“My brother was the first to observe her. Her face was at once tragic, mystic, passionate, calm, beautiful and gracious – a face for a sculptor, and a face for a painter – a face solitary in England…”
William Michael Rossetti Describing Jane Burden Morris
“To start with I was nothing, but then the merest sweep of his pencil gave a hint of what I would become.”
Kirsty Stonell Walker Writing as Alexa Wilding in A Curl of Copper and Pearl.
“I wish it were possible to explain the impression made upon me as a young girl whose experience so far had been quite remote from art, by sudden and close intercourse with those to whom it was the breath of life. The only approach I can make to describing it is by saying that I felt in the presence of a new religion. Their love of beauty did not seem to me unbalanced, but as if it included the whole world.” 
Georgiana Burne-JonesOn her introduction to the Pre-Raphaelites in Memorials of Burne-Jones

Recent Posts

Birth of the Brotherhood

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Pre-Raphaelite Girl Gang

I’ve amassed quite a collection of Pre-Raphaelite books over the years and the addition of Pre-Raphaelite Girl Gang to my shelves adds something alive. It buzzes …
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Balancing on the Bridge

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What Grows from Grief

William Holman Hunt’s painting Isabella and the Pot of Basil captivates. It’s a painting that is difficult to walk away from when you see it in …
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Aesthetic Vampirism

Literature is filled with fictional portraits. Visual art and the written word can intertwine in glorious ways. Dorian Gray’s mysteriously aging painting springs to mind and …
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Victorian Murder

In 1857, a twenty-two-year-old woman stood trial in Glasgow for murdering her former lover. It was the cause célèbre of the day and artist Dante …
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