Nothing is more emblematic of the Pre-Raphaelites than the legend of King Arthur. Obsessed with medieval chivalry, damsels in distress, and dreams of the romantic past, Sir Thomas Malory’s literary compilation Le Morte d’Arthur, published in 1485, was the perfect catalyst for their radical revolution against the Royal Academy’s ideals. The William Morris Gallery’s currentContinue reading “REVIEW | The Legend of King Arthur: A Pre-Raphaelite Love Story – William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow”
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REVIEW | Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings and Watercolours – Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Pre-Raphaelites: Drawing and Watercolours is a powerful showcase of the best of Victorian draughtsmanship and their inventive twists on culture and society. It opens with a pair of portraits by William Holman Hunt of Thomas Combe and his wife Martha, whose collection underpins the Ashmolean Museum’s major Pre-Raphaelite holdings. Naturally, we are introduced to keyContinue reading “REVIEW | Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings and Watercolours – Ashmolean Museum, Oxford”
A case of ‘mirror mania’ – Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites
When the National Gallery acquired Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait (1434) in 1842, it was the only pristine example of early Netherlandish painting from this period in their collection. Van Eyck had also been erroneously credited as the inventor of oil painting, a sixteenth-century myth invented by Giorgio Vasari in Italy and perpetuated by KarelContinue reading “A case of ‘mirror mania’ – Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites”
Nigel Ip | Visual Arts Writer & Art Historian 