(1846 Raphael than intending it to be understood, as critics of a dozen years ago [i.e. before 1862] received it, as chosen in approbation of the oftentimes fantastic, more often ascetic, and almost invariably imperfect systems of execution to which the undeveloped powers of the early Italian artists so cruelly limited their achievements on panels and convent walls. Considering how small were the attainments of the art critics of 1848, it is not surprising that they fell into this absurdity. Few of these men knew enough of the art they abused the public mind about to be able to recognise the real state of the case; still less could they comprehend the true qualities which shine through the most bizarre failures of execution, most of them due to over-earnestness and a devout desire to do right, which beset the ancient artists they ridiculed. Indulgence for youth of their own day, an enlightened and far-seeing regard of the importance of that which lay behind the most audacious declarations of the Brotherhood, were not to be expected from such men. A few only saw that something might come out of an idea so boldly enunciated, and, notwithstanding the vivid colours of its ridiculous side, sufficiently well expressed to have merited a gentler consideration than it received.'

When it is remembered that Millais was a Gold Medallist of the Royal Academy, and Mr. Hunt one of that institution's most robust and ardent students, it is difficult not to wonder why their technical accomplishments did not win the respect of the critics. At a somewhat later date, one of the Brotherhood thus, as repeated in the Athenaum (Aug. 15, 1896, p. 232), briefly wrote the apologia of his comrades:

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'Pre-Raphaelitism was neither more nor less than a protest of sincerity against the fatuousness of conventional art which ruled before its inception. It owed absolutely nothing but the example of sincerity to foreign or ancient artists of any kind; it illustrated that sincerity with greater devotion than any preceding mode of design, and produced nothing which is in the slightest degree like what had gone before it. Nor did the works and technical motives of the Brethren in any respect not controlled by this great rule of sincerity bear the least resemblance to each other. The effect of Pre-Raphaelitism on the practice of its professors was magical and revolutionary."

Such were the principles armed with which no less a person than Sir John Millais-who died President of the Royal Academy, and is universally acknowledged to be the greatest English painter of the Victorian Age-first appeared in the artistic arena. In the same way Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the world-renowned painter-poet, was bold enough to present himself. Thus Millais's fellow-martyr, Mr. Holman Hunt, was fain to come forth. Under the banner of Pre-Raphaelitism

1865]

Millais painted "A Huguenot," "Ophelia," "The Order of Release," and "The Proscribed Royalist." As the author of these splendid achievements the P.R.A. to be was, in 1853, elected an A.R.A. The list of Mr. Hunt's works is a record of primitive Pre-Raphaelitism but slightly modified by a larger experience. In Rossetti's "Ecce Ancilla Domini," which is now

in the National Gallery of British Art, and half a dozen more fine things, is evidence of how strongly as well as stringently he adhered to those much misunderstood principles which another of the Brotherhood has set forth in the above-quoted terms.

of PreRaphael

In a few years, of course, the stringency of the painters' Widening enthusiasm being relaxed, and their views growing larger and wider their public, too, having now been partly educated by itism. them-such works as "The Vale of Rest." The Parable of the Sweeper," "Stella" and "Vanessa," "Chill October," "Mr. Hook,"

[1846

and a score more equally fine subject pictures, landscapes, and portraits came from Millais's easel. Of these it is right to say that they are, after all, as he was wont to declare on his own account, greatly due to Pre-Raphaelitism "writ large," and used with all the force and fire of the master's stupendous powers. Mr. Hunt has not "written himself" in so large and splendid a fashion, but he is still a faithful and important prophet. Nor were these Brethren the only two who, by pen and pencil, have been "faithful found."

It is not desirable or, within the space here available, possible to enumerate all the pictures of the category in question, which, according to the then new avatar, exercised so prodigious an influence upon English art that to this day its effect is every year visible on the Academy walls. It is not to be thought that only to Millais, Rossetti, and Holman Hunt is due the creation of such qualities as the best modern English pictures excel in; for example, grasp of the subjects selected, which includes vigour and freshness in design, brilliance of illumination, splendour, wealth and harmony of colouring, style in drawing, research in matters of costume, and care in delineating whatever is desirable for delineation. The noble works of Sir John Gilbert, Maclise, Hook, Dyce, John Phillip, J. F. Lewis, and others already named in this connection, attest that, within their time, our national school was already rich enough in these respects, although the number of men possessed of the qualities in question was comparatively limited, and even the best of them were not so thoroughgoing and enthusiastic as Millais, Rossetti, or Holman Hunt. It will be remembered, too, that a leading canon of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood compelled its confessors to paint in the open air and as faithfully as they could; this, of course, ensured the extreme brilliancy of the local colours in their pictures, and consequent vividness in their coloration, or colour-schemes at large. Such qualities as these were not to be secured without finish of the highest kind and the almost complete evenness of the surfaces of the paintings. Lumps of opaque pigments, each casting its shadow and taking a sparkling light, obtained in pre-Pre-Raphaelite works, but would never do where choiceness, brilliance, and pure tints were indispensable.

While the then better-known members of the Brotherhood