Pre Raphaelite research

We were briefed to emulate a painting or photograph produced by the Pre Raphaelite collective.

I began researching the pre raphaelites at the Manchester art Gallery, here I got a view of their great works portraying the 19th century the way it actually was, a stark movement at the time. The most notable painting I saw was entitled Work Painting by Ford Madox Brown, although it would be too resource intensive for me to replicate it gave me a good feel for their work, steeped in metaphors and hidden meaning.

I went on to research more of the collectives work on the internet, using various websites and search engines to discover more of their paintings and hopefully find a piece of work I would like to emulate that ins't too resource intensive. One of the first images that caught my eye was a historical painting of Lady Godiva by John Collier

Lady Godiva was a noblewoman from the 11th century who rode the streets of coventry in protest of her husbands oppressive tax on his tenants. John Collier portrayed her as a young and graceful woman, with her head down, perhaps from the traditional victorian perspective that it's a shameful thing to be naked. The grand background and mighty horse mixed with the soft morning light and heir of grace and gentleness in her posture however definitely give her the feeling of a heroin.

I thought deeply about wether I could reproduce this image in a modern setting and tried to think of metaphors to surround the image for a modern interpretation. However, I found none to do the image justice and continued to search for other paintings whilst still bearing this one in mind.

I found several technically basic portraits produced by the pre raphaelites, including: Sophy Gray by Millais, various works of Jane Morris by Rossetti and a portrait of Cecily Horner by Edward Burne Jones, (all images found and downloaded from Wiki Art)

However, none of these images really inspired me, so I searched for a painting with a little with a little more of a meaning or story behind the image.














I continued my search by looking for any historical or mythical paintings produced by the brother hood using wiki art to search for the categories of each individual painter. I first stumbled across Cinderella by John Everett Millais and felt as if I had found something I could relate to. However, the images itself struck my as quite boring and flat, so i decided to continue looking as i would rather emulate something a little more passionate.












Finally I found Pandora By Rossetti, here was an image I could relate too, was colourful and enjoyable to look at it ( in my opinion) and was also technically a viable option which could be produced with a small budget.

I have chosen my painting to emulate and am currently looking for models and MUA's etc to help me with the production of a final image.

Joseph Rigby 

www.josephrigbyphotography.co.uk