Inspired by the theories of John Ruskin, who urged artists to ‘go to nature’, they believed in an art of serious subjects treated with maximum realism. Their principal themes were initially religious, but they also used subjects from literature and poetry, particularly those dealing with love and death.

Women are central figures in Pre-Raphaelite art, and this has given rise to the concept of a “Pre-Raphaelite Woman.” I frequently see the term in the media, usually describing an actress or singer with long curly hair. Florence Welch is often described as Pre-Raphaelite, a look she has embraced.

The term today seems to have come to mean ‘curly spiralled hair in a nimbus around the head,’ but more often in PR art, the hair when unbound was very softly waved from the plaits the women kept it in all day. A photo of Fannie Cornforth combing her incredible long Pre-Raphaelite locks.

Here are seven talented female Pre-Raphaelite painters who you may or may not have heard of.

• Elizabeth Siddal (1829–1862)
• Joanna Mary Wells, neé Boyce (1831–1861)
• Emma Sandys (1843–1877)
• Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827–1891)
• Evelyn de Morgan (1855–1919)
• Rebecca Solomon (1832–1886)
• Marianne Stokes (1855–1927)

The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of realism which stress the independent observation of nature. In its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions.

The Pre-Raphaelites were fascinated with redheads, with vast quantities of images featuring flowing, curly, red hair dominating work from the era. As for those vast swathes of flowing hair so beloved by the Pre-Raphaelites, that comes down to the good old-fashioned male gaze.

Victorian
The Pre-Raphaelites were a loose and baggy collective of Victorian poets, painters, illustrators and designers whose tenure lasted from 1848 to roughly the turn of the century.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood began in 1848 with just three young men as its founder members. Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais rebelled against the standard teachings of the Royal Academy. They wanted to return to clean lines and took pre-renaissance art as their example.

The Pre-Raphaelite Poetry’s characteristics are very rich and very vast. It focuses on the glorification of art, escape from the darkness, and the ugliness of contemporary society, continuation of Romantic poetry, and gives a strong conception of scenes and situation, precise delineation, lavish imagery and metaphor.

The Pre-Raphaelites used clothing as a means to question the very position of women in their society; and so the women in their paintings and photographs remain iconic figures of subversion, even today. Working class girl Elizabeth Siddall was not your traditional Victorian woman.

A classic Pre-Raphaelite painter, Hunt drew the subject matter of this painting from religious themes, which was a typical practice during the Renaissance era. The striking colors and highly realistic images in this captivating painting capture a story from Leviticus (a book in the Bible).

Initials “P. R. B.” are used to sign works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with this example taken from a Millais piece from 1848; John Everett Millais, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Pre-Raphaelitism was the brainchild of three young rogue painters – Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais, all of whom found themselves disillusioned by what they believed to be the stuffy conventions of the Academy as a microcosmic artistic reflection of the values of a society.