Pre-Raphaelite Drawing

A comprehensive survey of the drawings, watercolours, prints and designs of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of radical young artists who banded together in London in 1848, revolutionized British art. This book explores the vital role played by drawing and design, in all its variety, in the work of the Brotherhood and their associates. It is illustrated with the most important Pre-Raphaelite drawings from public and private collections around the UK, including striking works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Edward Burne-Jones that have never before been exhibited or reproduced.

Alongside studies for paintings of religious, literary and medieval subjects are the group’s portraits, self-portraits and caricatures, often exchanged as gifts; meticulous depictions of nature by John Ruskin and his followers; captivating drawings of the iconic Pre-Raphaelite models Lizzie Siddal and Jane Morris; and original designs for stained glass, textiles and ceramics.

Art historian Colin Cruise explores the emergence of the Brotherhood’s graphic style, their theories of naturalism, their radical promotion of new subjects, and their highly original use of watercolour as a drawing medium. He also demonstrates the impact that Pre-Raphaelite drawing had upon turn-of-the-century British art movements such as Aestheticism, Symbolism and Art Nouveau, and explores the role of drawing in the work of leading Arts and Crafts designers such as William Morris, William De Morgan and Florence Camm.