Inspired by artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s passion for wombats, every Friday is Wombat Friday at Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood. “The Wombat is a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness!” – Dante Gabriel Rossetti On September 27, 1855, Dante Gabriel Rossetti attended a gathering at the home of Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth. Alfred, Lord Tennyson read his latest poem, Maud,…
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Happy Birthday,William Holman Hunt!
William Holman Hunt, one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was born on this day in 1827. Today I’d like to share some of my favorite Holman Hunt works. Truth to nature was one of the main tenets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and an excellent example of this can be seen in the Death’s Head moth in William…
- Books, Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth, Jane Burden Morris, Julia Margaret Cameron, Pre-Raphaelite Subjects and Themes, Shakespeare, Tennyson, William Allingham, William Morris
The Diaries of William Allingham
If you’re interested in studying the Victorian era seriously, then diaries and letters are important. At times I feel like a 21st-century snoop, devouring personal journals and private correspondence whenever I get the chance. Through contemporary accounts, the past may not always come alive but it shines through the mist more clearly. The diaries of Irish poet William Allingham are…
- Books, Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Maria Spartali Stillman, Valentine Cameron Prinsep
Art of the Story
In a post a few years ago, I said that my love of Pre-Raphaelite art probably stems from my lifelong love of stories. Much of the Pre-Raphaelites’ work presents a narrative often inspired by literature and myth. I have noticed recently that a number of Victorian artworks are not just the telling of a story, but a depiction of a…
- Arthur Hughes, Arthurian Legend, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite Subjects and Themes, Tennyson, Waterhouse, William Holman Hunt
Four grey walls, and four grey towers
After posting about Evelyn De Morgan’s painting The Gilded Cage, I began to think about other paintings that depict women who are trapped and imprisoned in some way, paintings that prompt me to ponder limitations and boundaries. The Lady of Shalott is perhaps the most obvious example that comes to mind. Based upon the poem of the same name by…
