THE PRE-RAPHAELITES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1271, 28 October 1911, Page 9

THE PRE-RAPHAELITES.

At the opening of the Pro-Eaphaelito Exiibition in Manchester last month, an interesting address was delivered by Mr. Arthur Hughes, a cb-worker with the PreICuyhaelite group many years ago. 3ir. Ilighes said, in part: I/y excuse for being here is some happy msfuainlnnce with tie Bretkven, beginning very shortly after tho appearance of the:* mysterious letters "P.R.8." that aocsmpanied tho signature on the pictures that were exhibited in 1840. _ Critics hnTo been gtod enough to associate mo with them, but I was a little younger aatl never one of tho Brotherhood. It is i f/ir cry back t» 1549, but Hunt and Willais exhibited earlier still. Hunt had o subject from Sir Walter Scott's "Woodstack" and Millais ono from Saxou British history in 1817, and Hunt again with a very admirably invented picture from Rente's "Eve of St. Agnes" in 1848. In looking back at what has always worn t« me the aspect of romance, there appear t» have been influences at work that u some degree scsm to account' for a fwsli development or awaking. Among them E.iydon had been trying with eloquent word 3 to educate the public in faT»ur of Greek art. and the Elgin Marbles in particular, and the desirability oT deearating our public buildings with paintings. And there came about the two exhibitions held in Westminster Hnll of enrteons first and paintings after in compeiitisa for the selection of artists to decorato the Houses of Parliament, where, alas! poor Haydon himself met such griernur, disappointment. Among those exhibitors »f cartoons there appeared tho astonishingly young Millais (little moro than an infant) with "The Widow's Mite." Watts wan discovered with "Alfred Inciting the Britons to Resist the Landing of the Danes," and Madox Brown with his "Finding the Body of Harold," a pieture Hint produced so enthusiastic a letter from Ro.«seiti that tho suspicions Brown armed himself with a stick with which to welcome his unknown admirer should he prove to be a raving lunatic when ho called in response to the pcrjniwion given, nnd thus began a life-long and so often much tried but never to be broken friendship.

It has been noticed that rather a simi]nr movement appeared in literature with Wordsworth and Coleridge. Then came Tennyson and Carlylr, the time of • the T-umdinsf of the Working Man's College by Professor Maurice. Charles Kingslcy. Tom Hughes, and others—the day of muscular Christianity, as it was named. And those young men _ look themselves seriously. Their education had been going on "separately, but when three such minds, sn trained and so diversely and wonderfully fritted, met, it is nn wonder that some liirhhiing coruscated. And hour seriously they took themselves may fcn reen by their suddenly renouncing wfcal appeared to be the assured way to success in the acceptance of the artistic

convention and well understood ait language of tho day, and going out of their way to an almost unknown earlier simplicity, where it might almost appear their consummate training was not all needed. Evidently they felt impatient of conventionally that rather lowered art to the artificial, and mannerisms that wero stale and wanting in realism and not enough in touch with nature. S'o they appear to have settled to drop it all like a hot poker, and lo start again with something like ths conception of art they saw in Giotto.and Era'Angclico. And thus— if we may use the Verm—the convention of the Pre-Raphaelites was found. It landed them at a point that was about perfect for their object of getting closer to the "fount of all art." At first a certain stiffness from the manacles voluntarily worn jarred and repelled an innocent public, and caused much outcry. Well, we all know how one pair of eyes perceived an affinity in their work with that of the great artist's of all time, and there came the championing of •liusUiu, whose great inilueuce then and since I need not dwell on. Their innocent conventionalism was justified. Gradually the stiffness of tho pictures wore away, and there dawned unon the innocent public beauties and qualities in them that it had actually been thirsting for all along. And so the public was conquered. PrcRanhaclHe leaven was spreading ami spreading like circles in water until the edges are lost, while we are still under its influence. But no sketch of the time is complete without mention of their short-lived magazine, "The Germ," with William Rossetti for editor: I was drawing in the Academy School one evening when a voung sculptor. Alexander Munro, standing'behind me had brought with him a slender pamphlet. It passed around from hand to hand, eliciting shout's of laughter. In the end it came to me, and 1 saw the strangely interesting and pathetic etching by Ilolman Hunt inside, and that quaint but inspiring sonnet on the cover, and I could only wonder where Ihe joke came in. William Rossetti'.i sonnet goes:

When wiiesn merely hath a little thought Will, jilninlj think the thought which is in him,

Not inopiug another's bright or dim, Not Mangling With new words what others taught; When wlioss speaks, from having either sought Or only found, will speak, not just to skim A shallow surface with words made ' and trim, But in that very speech the matter brought; Bo not too keen to cry—"So this is all! A thing I might myself have thought as well But would not say it, for it was not worth!" Ask "Is this truth?" For is it still to tell That, be the theme a point or the whole earth, Truth is a circle, perfect—great or small?

It was in flic "Germ" that Gabriel Rossetti.'s "Blessed Damosel" appeared, his extraordinarily touching story called

"Hand and Soul," exquisite early poems by Christina linssetti, and among other things an article by Madox Brown entitled "On tho Mechanism of a Historical Picture." And here I may say. I do not think the "P.R.8." derived from him. He was older, jnst arrived, knowing all that a hard-won continental training could (rive, his work reminding one of Do la Roche, powerful and intense. He came alongside, fell in with them sympathetic-ally, and, though he was independence personified, was acclaimed as one of the Brotherhood.

And what a list of work. 1 ! from each followed after, and how the nature of each man came out! Jlolman. Hunt, for instance, whose strength seemed almost to court antagonism. Look at his series of subjects, and conceive the difficulties surmounted in their accomplishment—if you can. They did not think their gift was to bo folded- in a napkin and put away. It is difficult to record Millais's all-embracing accomplishment—the "Ferdinand and Ariel." "Ophelia," "Autumn Leaves," "Tha Huguenot," "Sir Isumbras," tho series of'landscapes, the serif'' of glorious portraits, the serie3 of children, and, ever and aprain, a manly English story like !ho "Fireman," "Young Raleigh," "Nelson's Grave," and "The North-west Passagj." Aga'in. we had setti with his teeming imagination and different, half Italian, nature, producing first those so deeply felt religious subjects, with the crowd of pen and. ink designs and exquisite pencil and chalk drawings. The glorious things we s.->.w in that Dante world—the glowing series of wonderfully executed paintings, until tho illness and the end!