In Modern Painters, John Ruskin urged artists to “go to nature in all singleness of heart… rejecting nothing, selecting nothing and scorning nothing; believing all…
The Manchester Art Gallery announced this week that it has removed from exhibition the painting Hylas and the Nymphs by J.W. Waterhouse, and also the…
An important hallmark of Pre-Raphaelite art is truth to nature. Of course, there are many reasons why the art of the Pre-Raphaelites is so visually…
Like his Pre-Raphaelite brethren, Dante Gabriel Rossetti used live models in his works. Throughout the course of his career, the same faces grace his canvasses,…
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting Proserpine is an arresting and visually striking work. Blogging about it once has never been enough; it resurfaces in my posts…
When I was fifteen years old, my father taught me how to drive. I was eager, yet scared; I couldn’t believe that I had actually…
Evelyn De Morgan painted The Gilded Cage in 1919. This was her last work before her death and we can read a wealth of meaning…
Richard Dadd is a Victorian artist that both shocks and fascinates me. He demonstrated a great talent for drawing early in life and entered the…
La Ghirlandata was painted at Kelmscott Manor after a period of great difficulty for Rossetti — he had attempted suicide earlier that year. Despite his…
Since it is now the beginning of Summer, Sweet Summer by John William Waterhouse seems a fitting painting to contemplate. Reclining in the grass, a…
Above is Sir John Everett Millais’ painting Mariana, which I’ve blogged about before in this post. Her dress is bluer than blue, the stained glass…
In The North-West Passage, Millais used a retired sailor named Captain Trelawny for the old mariner. Trelawny was described affectionately as a “jolly old pirate”…
Beatrice Buckstone posed for three of Millais’ works. She was the granddaughter of actor/comedian John Baldwin Buckstone. Finding Shakespeare has an interesting post showing…
“The girl is in a sort of passionate reverie, and is drawing her hand listlessly along the strings of a violin which hangs against the…
The day has its own bright beauty. Morning may bring the possibility of a new beginning, but at night, everything slows down and the world takes…
Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ painting King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid is based on the story of an African King who had never felt any attraction…
Burne-Jones’ painting The Mirror of Venus is a celebration of female beauty. Ten women, often identified as Venus and her attendants, gather around their own…
According to Georgiana Burne-Jones’ memorials of her husband, the model for Astrologia was Miss Augusta Jones. I love the reflection seen on the crystal ball;…
The Poem: Drawing inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s The Blessed Damozel explores the theme of lovers separated by death. Like…
Apple Blossoms captures a relaxing outing on a spring day. Liverpool Museums points out that there are many different ways to interpret this painting, especially with…
In 1859, Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Bocca Baciata and it was a radical change in style. Afterwards his work gravitated towards images of a single…
Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ portrait of his daughter Margaret is another example of mirror paintings that I adore. It’s not the mirror itself that I love;…
In The Magic Circle, a lone sorceress casts her spell while surrounded by ravens in a desolate landscape. No lush greenery here, Waterhouse has placed…
