Love & Desire – Portraits and Romance

A rare mother and daughter’s day. I am meeting mum and Michelle here at the National Gallery of Australia (NGA). We’re here to experience the Pre Raphaelites exhibition – Love & Desire. I arrive early though and before they arrive too, I park the car and wander through the sculpture garden.

The Pre Raphaelites Brotherhood (PRB) rejected the style of the Renaissance masters and ‘introduced extreme detail and raw truthfulness to religious, literary and historical stories and symbols which allowed the viewer to decode deeper messages. The art of the Pre Raphaelites expressed the rapid change, hopes and anxieties of a society in the process of modernization, and its impact on the world today’. Although controversial in their technique and bohemian lifestyles they nevertheless attracted followers and became internationally famous.

Portraits

“The Pre-Raphaelites brought a new intimacy and psychological intensity to portraiture. Instead of wealthy and powerful figures, the Brotherhood often depicted family members, lovers and friends. Aiming for the most truthful portrayal, the artists sometimes made drawn studies, but usually painted from close, almost scientific observation of their subjects. Facial expressions, hands and the objects around the sitters hint at their innermost feelings and thoughts.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his younger followers explored the question of modern beauty, seeking out women with dramatic, unconventional looks, strong features and thick hair, that soon became a fashionable Pre-Raphaelite look. They were often depicted as literary or poetic characters who represented the power of beauty to enchant. The beloved (The bride) brings together several of Rossetti’s favourite models who, while discernible as individuals, display the classic features of his ideal woman or ‘stunner’.”

Love & Desire – Pre Raphaelites Masterpieces from the Tate, National Gallery of Australia

Vibrant with colour and rich in detail, Rossetti’s composition brings together an abundance of figures, flowers, intricate patterns and sumptuous textures. Together they celebrate the beauty and presence of its female subjects. At the centre stands the bride, inspired by the biblical Song of Solomon, lifting her veil as she gazes directly out at the viewer. Her attendants, depicted with a variety of ethnic backgrounds, together with her elaborate Japanese kimono and Chinese-inspired headdress, would have appeared strikingly exotic to Victorian audiences. Rossetti himself had a fascination with Eastern art and decorative objects. His extensive collection of textiles and other treasures frequently found their way into his paintings.

Romance

“The Pre-Raphaelite artists and their circle were inspired by medieval stories, such as those of King Arthur and his knights, and the work of William Shakespeare and John Keats; contemporary authors such as Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning were also influential. The scenes chosen from literature are often romantic or tragic or, like the choice of religious themes, intended to illuminate contemporary issues. Many of the Pre-Raphaelites were also accomplished writers. Their paintings often appeared with extracts from poems and plays, sometimes inscribed into the frames or quoted, at length, within catalogues.

The revival of medieval subjects, notably Thomas Malory’s retelling of Arthurian legend, Le more d’Arthur, was key. For the Pre-Raphaelites this era expressed ideals of art and beauty executed with labour and skill. Images of King Arthur’s heroic acts, or the adulterous love of his first knight Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, reflect on themes of nobility, betrayal and infidelity. Works by Elizabeth Siddal depict medieval subjects which reveal the vulnerable character of the hero or the stoic strength of the women in the narratives.”

Love & Desire – Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate – National Gallery of Australia

A fine example of the Pre-Raphaelite fascination with medieval chivalry, A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford depicts a noble knight helping two young peasant children across a river. Sir Isumbras is drawn from a fourteenth-century English romance, although Millais imagined this particular scene rather than illustrating an episode from the original story. The atmospheric landscape is particularly striking, with fluid brushwork capturing the fading light of twilight. Meanwhile, the river’s smooth, almost luminous surface lends the scene a contemplative, spiritual quality, suggesting the knight’s noble deeds and the closing chapter of his journey.

Chivalry Is Not Dead

It is difficult to pick up all the detail and the intensity of color from images of the originals. These images, in hindsight, lack sheer impressiveness of the paintings. There is something special about standing in front of a painting in a gallery. The gilt frames, the purpose positioned lighting, the background walls, even the gallery and the building themselves. All elements lend to the current experience of a rectangle of paint on wood or canvas.

The exhibition gives me a great sense of connection to the past, to the stories and characters, to the landscapes, settings and narratives. It is all at once intensely emotional and yet disengaged.

This new style brought about a fashion in portraiture that changed the way painting was accessed and perceived. As a result, the meaning of truth and beauty were being interpreted differently at this time. In many ways, the skill and labour involved in creating such detailed visual displays, is a testament to the accomplishments of the painters themselves.

It may not be as romantic as the Romantics, as restrained as the Renaissance or as luminous as the Impressionists but the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood certainly produced a body of work that is in essence all at one bold, vivid, lustrous, desperate and sensual. Love and desire indeed.

Would I Return?

Yes. Although the exhibition runs 14 December 2018 – 28 April 2019 at the National Gallery of Australia. I’m not sure I’ll get another chance.

Note that quotes and explanations in this post references to those from the NGA exhibition.