Book Review: Pre-Raphaelites - Art and Poetry

 It's been a while since a post, for which I offer apologies and excuses - I've been writing and giving talks, plus a lot of life also got in the way. In the meantime, two smashing Pre-Raphaelite exhibitions have arrived and it is lovely to see that my newsfeed is full of glorious art (and no doubt reassuringly negative reviews by Jonathan Jones, he is my touchstone).  Bad news for me however is that I am not able to go anywhere at the moment, so how am I meant to wallow in all this lovely art? Catalogue, immediately!

Let's be honest, even in better circumstances, it is unlikely I'd be able to get all the way to Newcastle as that is quite a jaunt for me. I was very excited about this exhibition as the subject of my Masters dissertation was Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites and so I knew I'd really enjoy seeing new paintings and ways of looking at the theme. I went to the Laing back in 1999 (I think) when we were living in Yorkshire and got to see the utterly glorious Isabella and the Pot of Basil - she's a big girl...

Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1866-8) William Holman Hunt

To frame the art within the framework of poetry is always going to make perfect sense; so much of the art is based on poetry and some artists were also poets. Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats and a whole host of others are behind the subjects of some of the Pre-Raphaelite greatest hits, so what would be better than to see all these in the same place?

If One Could Have That Little Head of Hers (1900-09) Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale

The catalogue is a glossy, dark green affair in soft cover. There are some short, accessible essays and then pages of beautiful paintings. The extensiveness of poetic sources is eye opening; obviously Rossetti made his art and poetry a double bill, but artists reached not only to their contemporary, Tennyson, but also back to Ulysses and Dante, the Faerie Queene and Chaucer. I liked that there were not only paintings but also the much neglected 'decorative arts' - enamelling, furniture, tiles as well as book illustrations. It never fails to tickle me that Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale made full-scale painting versions of her illustrations as well as the actual illustration so she got to sell the same image twice.

Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1877) Joseph Severn

I think that the tale of poor Isabella and her herb cultivation often gets overlooked in favour of Ophelia as the poster girl of Pre-Raphaelitism, and it is great to see the exhibition go into the iconography of Isabella and her doomed love affair, from John Everett Millais dog-kicking piece, and the almost-two-metre-tall Holman Hunt masterpiece to Joseph Severn's lesser-known gloomy version from 1877. There is also La Belle Dame Sans Merci to add to your Keats extravaganza, and I'm delighted to see Fanny Bunn's enamel is featured. Fanny Bunn is everywhere right now, I'm so proud of her.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1901) Fanny Bunn

There is a fair amount of Fanny Cornforth featured too (I'm all about Fannys, as you well know) with Fazio's Mistress in all her glory as well Rossetti's illustrations for Goblin Market (where she is patently Lizzie) and Laus Veneris by Edward Burne-Jones (where she was the original model for Venus in red).

Laus Veneris (1873-8) Edward Burne-Jones

Looking through the catalogue I am struck by exactly how much of my favourite art is based on poetry. Obviously, I knew that poetry was a massive influence, but exactly how expansive that influence was is breathtaking. It is also interesting to see how this art/poetry defines femininity and how women should be. The Victorian ideal of women who are beautiful, loyal, patient and a bit doomed is on full display - is she Portia. Oriana, the lady receiving the keepsake from a doomed knight or the dying May Queen? Even if you want a bad girl you can see Lucrezia Borgia or the Merciless Lady on canvas being gorgeous and corrupting, although obviously we don't want lovely ladies to be following their example, thank you. Be less Laura and more Lizzie please.

Illustration from Goblin Market (1862) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

In conclusion, if you are sat on your sofa away from the delights of Newcastle, this book is a welcome salve. It has the perfect amount of essays to pictures, and the illustrations are great quality and the perfect mix of familiar and new. I really enjoyed reading the essays and feel this is the perfect model for exhibition catalogue, so huge congratulations to the Laing for bringing something so gorgeous to life.

Pre-Raphaelites - Art and Poetry exhibition details are here and you can buy the catalogue here.