Comments on: The Pre-Raphaelites http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/ Tue, 7 Oct 2008 08:04:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Mike Stamper http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/#comment-353667 Mike Stamper Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:38:20 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/#comment-353667 There is a new (ish) gallery that has a good collection of pre-raphaelite paintings. It's the Guildhall art gallery in the centre of the proper "city" of London. It has been open for a few years now and because it is off the normal tourist routes - the City is almost deserted at week ends - it doesn't suffer with over-crowding ! There is a new (ish) gallery that has a good collection of pre-raphaelite paintings. It’s the Guildhall art gallery in the centre of the proper “city” of London. It has been open for a few years now and because it is off the normal tourist routes - the City is almost deserted at week ends - it doesn’t suffer with over-crowding !

]]> By: Andrew http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/#comment-209614 Andrew Sun, 28 Oct 2007 06:15:18 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/#comment-209614 <i>the tragic death of Rosetti’s beloved Elizabeth Siddall after exposure to prolonged immersion in cold water as she posed in a tin tub for weeks on end for Millais’s Ophelia.</i> That's a myth. Siddall died 10 years after 'Ophelia' was finished of a laudanum overdose - wiki has a succint version of the story <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Siddal" rel="nofollow">here</a> but I've heard the same elsewhere from scholars. Anyway, she died 11 feb 1862, 'Ophelia' was completed in 1852. Still love the site though. the tragic death of Rosetti’s beloved Elizabeth Siddall after exposure to prolonged immersion in cold water as she posed in a tin tub for weeks on end for Millais’s Ophelia.

That’s a myth. Siddall died 10 years after ‘Ophelia’ was finished of a laudanum overdose - wiki has a succint version of the story here but I’ve heard the same elsewhere from scholars.

Anyway, she died 11 feb 1862, ‘Ophelia’ was completed in 1852.

Still love the site though.

]]> By: Dan van Benthuysen http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/#comment-192607 Dan van Benthuysen Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:47:23 +0000 http://www.linesandcolors.com/2007/10/14/the-pre-raphaelites/#comment-192607 I don't think it's a crime to be overly literary but I do find this school overly literal. And the idea that everybody in the time-line of art between Raphael and the PRB was simply repeating old formulas was really the height of their conceit. (Caravaggio? Rembrandt? Vermeer? Chardin?) The PRB were a skilled group of technicians who, for the most part, managed to kill a sense of wonder or mystery with a wealth of detail. For my part, I don't think they come close to Pyle and his students. John Everett Malaise and his friends: Ever notice how many of the subjects in their paintings look like people who've taken too much opium? There was a reason for that. I think that today's fantasy illustrators and concept artists have the advantage in recognizing that the viewer is more actively engaged in some passages by the suggestion of detail rather than by the tedious delineation of everything that can possibly be described. When nothing is left to the imagination the viewer may be dazzled by technique but bored by the message. At least that's where I find myself with this group. I don’t think it’s a crime to be overly literary but I do find this school overly literal. And the idea that everybody in the time-line of art between Raphael and the PRB was simply repeating old formulas was really the height of their conceit. (Caravaggio? Rembrandt? Vermeer? Chardin?) The PRB were a skilled group of technicians who, for the most part, managed to kill a sense of wonder or mystery with a wealth of detail. For my part, I don’t think they come close to Pyle and his students.

John Everett Malaise and his friends: Ever notice how many of the subjects in their paintings look like people who’ve taken too much opium? There was a reason for that.

I think that today’s fantasy illustrators and concept artists have the advantage in recognizing that the viewer is more actively engaged in some passages by the suggestion of detail rather than by the tedious delineation of everything that can possibly be described. When nothing is left to the imagination the viewer may be dazzled by technique but bored by the message. At least that’s where I find myself with this group.

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