Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & watercolours

This is an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat which is on until the 6th of August 2023. We visited on a very wintry 25th of June 2023.I didn’t know much about them but there was a very informative short film at the start of the exhibition which was good. The most loved artists of the 19th century who looked back to the simplicity and directness of Mediaeval and Renaissance art with naturalistic poses and the use of brilliant colour, painting with originality and authenticity according to the very brief exhibition notes.

The exhibition contained works from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to tell the story of the artists, their lives and loves, bringing to life the world of John Ruskin, William and Jane Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal. These are rarely-seen, often fragile art works. The Director of the Ashmolean said in the film that he was pleased they were being seen rather than simply kept in drawers in Oxford. So it is a rare opportunity to see them.

This is the painting used to publicise the exhibition, and is one of the few large works on display. Cloister Lilies, 1891 by MarieSpartali, later Stillman. She modelled for Rossetti and Burne-Jones before becoming an artist in her own right. This is lovely.

These artists sought to portray women who were strong and independent who they called stunners. This is Portrait of Louisa Ruth Herbert 1858 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He described her as Stunner no.1 and said of her she was a model whom I have been longing to paint for years … who has the most varied and highest expression I ever saw in a woman’s face beside abundant beauty.

A favourite model for Rossetti was Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal whose portraits were rapidly drawn in pencil, and show her in almost random poses … most often dreaming and self-absorbed. Here’s his Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal, seated circa 1855.

I liked that these artists supported women’s equality and that the models also took up painting. Here’s a drawing by Elizabeth Siddal illustrating a scene from Robert Browning’s poem Pippa Passes. It depicts the virtuous Pippa passing a group of prostitutes who call on her to join their calling. Apparently Browning was delighted beyond measure when shown the drawing. Pippa Passes, 1854.

Other paintings illustrated scenes from Arthurian and other medieval legends but I was not enamoured of them. I preferred the outdoor nature settings and landscapes. This is The Kapellbrücke at Lucerne 1861 by John Ruskin. Lucerne chosen by Ruskin because it was a favourite painting location for JMW Turner in the 1840s. The accompanying note tells us: The misty reflections in the water are like a homage to Turner, but with a Pre-Raphaelite depth of colour. The careful delineation of each wooden panel on the bridge, in their individual hues, is even more Pre-Raphaelite.

The Pre-Raphaelites looked to nature for inspiration, seeking to depict animals and plants from nature not from their imaginations. I liked these two studies by Ruskin. First, Study of a Velvet Crab, about 1870-1. Hung high up it was hard to photograph. Ruskin’s rendition is accurate, but at the same time he has made an attractive drawing with his use of subtly toned blues and violets.

And this is his Study of the Plumage of a Partridge 1867. He was fascinated by the plumage of birds, with its infinite variety of forms and colours and the challenges it offered to the artist… Ruskin has varied his touch so that the contrasting textures of each part of the bird, from the hardness of the claws to the softness of the feathers on the breast, are convincingly indicated.

And here is a Spray of Olive about 1870 by Ruskin criticised other artists for painting leaves that were all alike: in his drawings each one is individual in its form, in its angle of growth, and in the way it reflects the light.

Red Barn at Whitchurch 1863 by George Price Boyce was referenced in the short film at the start of the exhibition but I can’t remember the context! I liked the painting though. The artist was trained as an architect and particularly loved ancient agricultural structures. Traditional barns, with tall doors large enough to take loaded wagons, were becoming obsolete because grain crops were being threshed by machine directly after harvesting.

I liked View of a Lake with Trees 1857 by John William Inchbold. Described as a charming study in the accompanying note. He has used transparent watercolour for the sky and the blue hills in the distance, and the more opaque ‘bodycolour’ for the highlights on the trees and ripples on the lake. And varied his brushstrokes between broad curving strokes and thin straight lines.

Another painting by the same artist is Wooded Slope with Four Figures about 1881 was painted at Vevey on the north shore of Lake Geneva. You can see the figures of two girls sitting in the sunshine. Inchbold became known in the early 1850s as one of the best Pre-Raphaelite painters. But it seems he was undermined by criticism by Ruskin – a bit gossipy from the accompanying note.

This is A view in Yorkshire 1850s by William Henry Millais. The accompanying note says this was probably influenced by Ruskin – who seems to have had an outsize influence on the group!

Here is a final picture, Study of a Greyhound between 1852 and 1865 by Ford Madox Brown – that brought to mind Otto!

Worth a look if you’re interested in the Pre-Raphaelites.