Page 15 - History 2020

diminishing. There was great wealth in Britain but it was unevenly distributed. There

was new technology and railways being built making travel easier. Great inroads
were being made into scientific enquiry but it was also a harsh time of punishment
and discipline with modern prisons and the Panopticon. A Gothic revival in
architecture was also taking place.

Artistic revolution
The other important consideration as to why the PRB formed in 1848 is to examine
the state of art teaching and production at the time.

Sir Joshua Reynolds founded the Royal Academy 1768 and wanted to raise the status
of art in England to the standard of the Great Masters
of the Renaissance. When the PRB were students Reynold's lectures 'Discourses'
were still being read. He wanted artists to paint great scenes from history, classical
literature or the Bible. In fact Reynold's himself did not do this and instead made
portraits of wealthy aristocrats because they sold better. However, by 1848 painting
had become formulaic in convention and style by always presenting a pyramid

formation with light falling on the central figure and one corner in shade plus an
emphasis on perspective. The figures were idealised and did not look like real people.
The palette had become muddy and the students felt art had become lazy,
predictable and boring. For example, Doctor Samuel Johnson, 1756, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, National Portrait Gallery.

Art students learned to draw from plaster casts of classical sculpture. Millais was the
perfect academic artist joining the RA at an early age and producing full works by the

age of 15. He was the star pupil and it was thought he would be the one to bring
British art back to the ideals of Reynolds. The RA was originally at Somerset House
and then moved to Trafalgar Square into the building now known as the National
Gallery. The RA drawing school was at the top of the building which enabled to
students to go downstairs to the Gallery to view the most revered works of the Great
Masters. Catherine of Alexandria ,1507, Raphael, National Gallery, was considered to

be the most perfect example.

The most respected artists of the day were William Collins and Edwin Landseer (who
often painted pictures of sentimental dogs represented in the role of people). Both of
these men were superb academic artists. However the students were disappointed in
the way that their training was ultimately being used just to make nice pictures for
money and felt they did not have any intellectual point.

So as their solution was not Reynolds or Raphael the students looked to the past to

find a richer meaning in culture. This was partially inspired by the Gothic revival in