1.
William Holman Hunt
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William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their attention to detail, vivid color. These features were influenced by the writings of John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, for Hunt it was the duty of the artist to reveal the correspondence between sign and fact. Of all the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Hunt remained most true to their ideals throughout his career and he was always keen to maximize the popular appeal and public visibility of his works. After eventually entering the Royal Academy art schools, having initially been rejected and he formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Along with John Everett Millais they sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the qualities of medieval art. He had many pupils including Robert Braithwaite Martineau, after a failed engagement to his model Annie Miller, he married Fanny Waugh, who later modelled for the figure of Isabella. When she died in childbirth in Italy, he sculpted her tomb at Fiesole, having it brought down to the English Cemetery in Florence and he had a close connection with St. Marks Church in Florence, and paid for the communion chalice inscribed in memory of his wife and his second wife, Edith, was Fannys sister. At the time it was illegal in Great Britain to marry ones deceased wifes sister, hunts works were not initially successful, and were widely attacked in the art press for their alleged clumsiness and ugliness. He achieved some note for his intensely naturalistic scenes of modern rural and urban life, such as The Hireling Shepherd. Hunt also painted works based on poems, such as Isabella. He eventually built his own house in Jerusalem and he eventually had to relinquish painting because failing eyesight meant that he could not achieve the quality that he wanted. His last major works, including a version of The Light of the World, were completed with the help of his assistant. Hunt died on 7 September 1910 and was buried in St Pauls Cathedral in London, Hunt published an autobiography in 1905. Many of his writings are attempts to control the interpretation of his work. That year, he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII, at the end of his life he lived in Sonning-on-Thames
2.
Tate Britain
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Tate Britain is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in England, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and it is the oldest gallery in the network, having opened in 1897. It is one of the largest museums in the country, the gallery is situated on Millbank, on the site of the former Millbank Prison. Construction, undertaken by Higgs and Hill, commenced in 1893, however, from the start it was commonly known as the Tate Gallery, after its founder Sir Henry Tate, and in 1932 it officially adopted that name. As a consequence, it was renamed Tate Britain in March 2000, the front part of the building was designed by Sidney R. J. Smith with a classical portico and dome behind, and the central sculpture gallery was designed by John Russell Pope. Tate Britain includes the Clore Gallery of 1987, designed by James Stirling, crises during its existence include flood damage to work from the River Thames, and bomb damage during World War II. However, most of the collection was in storage elsewhere during the war. In 1970, the building was given Grade II* listed status, the museum stayed open throughout the three phases of renovation. Completed in 2013, the newly designed sections were conceived by the architects Caruso St John and included a total of nine new galleries, with reinforced flooring to accommodate heavy sculptures. A second part was unveiled later that year, the centrepiece being the reopening of the buildings Thames-facing entrance as well as a new spiral staircase beneath its rotunda, the circular balcony of the rotundas domed atrium, closed to visitors since the 1920s, was reopened. The gallery also now has a dedicated entrance and reception beneath its entrance steps on Millbank. The front entrance is accessible by steps, a side entrance at a lower level has a ramp for wheelchair access. The gallery provides a restaurant and a café, as well as a Friends room and this membership is open to the public on payment of an annual subscription. As well as offices the building complex houses the Prints and Drawings Rooms, as well as the Library. The restaurant features a mural by Rex Whistler, Tate Britain and Tate Modern are now connected by a high speed boat along the River Thames, which runs from Millbank Millennium Pier immediately outside Tate Britain. The boat is decorated with spots, based on paintings of similar appearance by Damien Hirst, the lighting artwork incorporated in the piers structure is by Angela Bulloch. The main display spaces show the permanent collection of historic British art, the gallery also organises career retrospectives of British artists and temporary major exhibitions of British Art. Every three years the gallery stages a Triennial exhibition in which a guest curator provides an overview of contemporary British Art, the 2003 Tate Triennial was called Days Like These
3.
Oil painting
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Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. Commonly used drying oils include linseed oil, poppy seed oil, walnut oil, the choice of oil imparts a range of properties to the oil paint, such as the amount of yellowing or drying time. Certain differences, depending on the oil, are visible in the sheen of the paints. An artist might use different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular consistency depending on the medium, the oil may be boiled with a resin, such as pine resin or frankincense, to create a varnish prized for its body and gloss. Its practice may have migrated westward during the Middle Ages, Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. In recent years, water miscible oil paint has come to prominence and, to some extent, water-soluble paints contain an emulsifier that allows them to be thinned with water rather than paint thinner, and allows very fast drying times when compared with traditional oils. Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the subject onto the canvas with charcoal or thinned paint, Oil paint is usually mixed with linseed oil, artist grade mineral spirits, or other solvents to make the paint thinner, faster or slower-drying. A basic rule of oil paint application is fat over lean and this means that each additional layer of paint should contain more oil than the layer below to allow proper drying. If each additional layer contains less oil, the painting will crack. This rule does not ensure permanence, it is the quality and type of oil leads to a strong. There are many media that can be used with the oil, including cold wax, resins. These aspects of the paint are closely related to the capacity of oil paint. Traditionally, paint was transferred to the surface using paintbrushes. Oil paint remains wet longer than other types of artists materials, enabling the artist to change the color. At times, the painter might even remove a layer of paint. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a time while the paint is wet, Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch within a span of two weeks. It is generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year, art conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is 60 to 80 years old
4.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
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The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member brotherhood and their principles were shared by other artists, including Marie Spartali Stillman and Ford Madox Brown. A later, medievalising strain inspired by Rossetti included Edward Burne-Jones, the groups intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been an influence on the academic teaching of art. In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, to the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, sloshy meant anything lax or scamped in the process of painting. Any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind, the brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English critic whose influences were driven by his religious background, the group continued to accept the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a movement, created a distinct name for their form of art. The groups debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in John Millaiss parents house on Gower Street, London in 1848. At the first meeting, the painters John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hunt and Millais were students at the Royal Academy of Arts and had met in another loose association, the Cyclographic Club, a sketching society. At his own request Rossetti became a pupil of Ford Madox Brown in 1848, at that date, Rossetti and Hunt shared lodgings in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, Central London. Hunt had started painting The Eve of St. Agnes based on Keatss poem of the same name, as an aspiring poet, Rossetti wished to develop the links between Romantic poetry and art. Ford Madox Brown was invited to join, but the more senior artist remained independent but supported the group throughout the PRB period of Pre-Raphaelitism, other young painters and sculptors became close associates, including Charles Allston Collins, Thomas Tupper, and Alexander Munro. The PRB intended to keep the existence of the secret from members of the Royal Academy. The principles were deliberately non-dogmatic, since the brotherhood wished to emphasise the personal responsibility of artists to determine their own ideas. Influenced by Romanticism, the members thought freedom and responsibility were inseparable, nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by medieval culture, believing it to possess a spiritual and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of realism which stress the independent observation of nature, in its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions. The realists were led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalists were led by Rossetti and his followers, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
5.
Edward Lear
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Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. As an author, he is principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennysons poetry, Lear was born into a middle-class family at Holloway, North London, the penultimate of twenty-one children of Ann Clark Skerrett and Jeremiah Lear. He was raised by his eldest sister, also named Ann,21 years his senior, owing to the familys limited finances, Lear and his sister were required to leave the family home and live together when he was aged four. Ann doted on Edward and continued to act as a mother for him until her death, Lear suffered from lifelong health afflictions. From the age of six he suffered frequent grand mal seizures, and bronchitis, asthma. Lear experienced his first seizure at a fair near Highgate with his father, the event scared and embarrassed him. Lear felt lifelong guilt and shame for his epileptic condition and his adult diaries indicate that he always sensed the onset of a seizure in time to remove himself from public view. When Lear was about seven years old he began to show signs of depression and he suffered from periods of severe melancholia which he referred to as the Morbids. He was the first major bird artist to draw birds from real live birds, Lears first publication, published when he was 19 years old, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in 1830. One of the greatest ornithological artists of his era, he contributed to John Goulds works and was compared favourably with the naturalist John James Audubon. Unfortunately his eyesight deteriorated too much to work with precision on the fine drawings and etchings of plates used in lithography, thus he turned to landscape painting. Among other travels, he visited Greece and Egypt during 1848–49 and his landscape style often shows views with strong sunlight, with intense contrasts of colour. Between 1878 and 1883 Lear spent his summers on Monte Generoso and his oil painting The Plains of Lombardy from Monte Generoso is in the Ashmolean Museum in the English city of Oxford. Throughout his life he continued to paint seriously and he had a lifelong ambition to illustrate Tennysons poems, near the end of his life a volume with a small number of illustrations was published. In 1842 Lear began a journey into the Italian peninsula, travelling through the Lazio, Rome, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. In personal notes, together with drawings, Lear gathered his impressions on the Italian way of life, folk traditions, and the beauty of the ancient monuments. Of particular interest to Lear was the Abruzzo, which he visited in 1843, through the Marsica, at Castel di Sangro, Lear described the winter stillness of the mountains and the beautiful basilica
6.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
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Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victorias reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, such as Break, Break, Break, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tears, Idle Tears, Tennyson also wrote some notable blank verse including Idylls of the King, Ulysses, and Tithonus. During his career, Tennyson attempted drama, but his plays enjoyed little success and he is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson was born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England and he was born into a middle-class line of Tennysons, but also had a noble and royal ancestry. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, was rector of Somersby, also rector of Benniworth and Bag Enderby, and vicar of Grimsby. Rev. George Clayton Tennyson raised a family and was a man of superior abilities and varied attainments, who tried his hand with fair success in architecture, painting, music. He was comfortably well off for a clergyman and his shrewd money management enabled the family to spend summers at Mablethorpe. Alfred Tennysons mother, Elizabeth Fytche, was the daughter of Stephen Fytche, vicar of St. James Church, Louth and rector of Withcall, Tennysons father carefully attended to the education and training of his children. Tennyson and two of his brothers were writing poetry in their teens and a collection of poems by all three was published locally when Alfred was only 17. One of those brothers, Charles Tennyson Turner, later married Louisa Sellwood, the sister of Alfreds future wife. Another of Tennysons brothers, Edward Tennyson, was institutionalised at a private asylum, Tennyson was a student of Louth Grammar School for four years and then attended Scaitcliffe School, Englefield Green and King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, where he joined a society called the Cambridge Apostles. A portrait of Tennyson by George Frederic Watts is in Trinitys collection, at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry Hallam and William Henry Brookfield, who became his closest friends. His first publication was a collection of his rhymes and those of his elder brother Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellors Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his first pieces, reportedly, it was thought to be no slight honour for a young man of twenty to win the chancellors gold medal. He published his first solo collection of poems, Poems Chiefly Lyrical in 1830, claribel and Mariana, which later took their place among Tennysons most celebrated poems, were included in this volume. Although decried by critics as overly sentimental, his verse soon proved popular and brought Tennyson to the attention of well-known writers of the day. In the spring of 1831, Tennysons father died, requiring him to leave Cambridge before taking his degree and he returned to the rectory, where he was permitted to live for another six years and shared responsibility for his widowed mother and the family
7.
Thomas Moore
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Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byrons memoirs after his death, in his lifetime he was often referred to as Anacreon Moore. From a relatively early age Moore showed an interest in music and he sometimes appeared in musical plays with his friends, such as The Poor Soldier by John OKeeffe, and at one point had ambitions to become an actor. Moore attended several Dublin schools including Samuel Whytes English Grammar School in Grafton Street where he learned the English accent with which he spoke for the rest of his life. In 1795 he graduated from Trinity College, which had recently allowed entry to Catholic students, Moore was initially a good student, but he later put less effort into his studies. This movement sought support from the French government to launch a revolution in Ireland, in 1798 a rebellion broke out followed by a French invasion, neither of which succeeded. Thomas Moore was born at 12 Aungier Street in Dublin, Ireland, over his fathers grocery shop, his father being from the Kerry Gaeltacht and his mother, Anastasia Codd, from Wexford. He had two sisters, Kate and Ellen. From a relatively early age Moore showed an interest in music and he sometimes appeared in musical plays with his friends, such as The Poor Soldier by John OKeeffe, and at one point had ambitions to become an actor. Moore attended several Dublin schools including Samuel Whytes English Grammar School in Grafton Street where he learned the English accent with which he spoke for the rest of his life. In 1795 he graduated from Trinity College, which had recently allowed entry to Catholic students, Moore was initially a good student, but he later put less effort into his studies. This movement sought support from the French government to launch a revolution in Ireland, in 1798 a rebellion broke out followed by a French invasion, neither of which succeeded. In 1799 he travelled to London to study law at Middle Temple and he was an impecunious student and had difficulties in paying the fees and his tailors bills. He was helped in this by his friends in the expatriate Irish community in London, including Barbara, widow of Arthur Chichester and she and her sister became his lifelong friends. However, it was as a poet, translator, balladeer and singer that he found fame, often simply called Moores Melodies, they were originally published between 1808 and 1834. But Moore was far more than a balladeer and he had major success as a society figure in London, meeting the Prince of Wales on several occasions and enjoying in particular the patronage of the Irish aristocrat Lord Moira. Moore stayed repeatedly at Moiras house at Donnington Park in Leicestershire where he enjoyed the extensive library and he also collaborated with Michael Kelly and Charles Edward Horn in staging operas to his librettos in 1801 and 1811. In 1803 he was appointed registrar to the Admiralty in Bermuda and he spent around three months on the island, but he found his work very light and uninspiring
8.
David Copperfield
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David Copperfield is the eighth novel by Charles Dickens. The novels full title is, The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and it was first published as a serial in 1849–50, and as a book in 1850. Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens own life and it was Dickens favorite among his own novels. In the preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens wrote, like many fond parents, and his name is David Copperfield. The story follows the life of David Copperfield from childhood to maturity, David was born in Blunderstone, Suffolk, England, six months after the death of his father. David spends his years in relative happiness with his loving, childish mother and their kindly housekeeper. When he is seven years old his mother marries Edward Murdstone, during the marriage, partly to get him out of the way and partly because he strongly objects to the whole proceeding, David is sent to lodge with Peggottys family in Yarmouth. Her brother, fisherman Mr Peggotty, lives in a built in an upturned boat on the beach, with his adopted relatives Emily and Ham. Little Emly is somewhat spoilt by her foster father. On his return, David is given good reason to dislike his stepfather and has feelings for Murdstones sister Jane. David bites him and soon afterwards is sent away to a school, Salem House, under a ruthless headmaster. There he befriends a boy, James Steerforth, and Tommy Traddles. He develops an admiration for Steerforth, perceiving him as something noble. David goes home for the holidays to learn that his mother has given birth to a baby boy, shortly after David returns to Salem House, his mother and her baby die, and David returns home immediately. Peggotty marries the local carrier, Mr Barkis, Murdstone sends David to work for a wine merchant in London – a business of which Murdstone is a joint owner. Davids landlord, Wilkins Micawber, is arrested for debt and sent to the Kings Bench Prison, no one remains to care for David in London, so he decides to run away. He walks from London to Dover, to his only relative and she had come to Blunderstone at his birth, only to depart in ire upon learning that he was not a girl. Davids great-aunt renames him Trotwood Copperfield and addresses him as Trot, Davids aunt sends him to a far better school than the last he attended
9.
Augustus Egg
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Augustus Leopold Egg RA was a Victorian artist best known for his modern triptych Past and Present, which depicts the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family. Egg was born to Joseph and Ann Egg, and baptised in St Jamess Church, Piccadilly and he had an elder brother, George Hine Egg. His father Joseph Egg was a gunsmith from the distinguished gun making family. Egg was educated in the schools of the Royal Academy, beginning in 1836, Egg was a member of The Clique, a group of artists founded by Richard Dadd and others in the late 1830s. Egg sought to combine popularity with moral and social activism, in line with the work of his friend Charles Dickens. With Dickens he set up the Guild of Literature and Art and he acted the lead role in Not So Bad As We Seem, a play written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton to raise funds for the organisation. His self-portrait in the role is in Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, eggs early paintings were generally illustrations of literary subjects. Like other members of The Clique, he saw himself as a follower of Hogarth and his interest in Hogarthian moral themes is evidenced in his paired paintings The Life and Death of Buckingham, depicting the dissolute life and sordid death of the Restoration rake. Yet his paintings often took a look at their subjects. Unlike most other members of The Clique, Egg also admired the Pre-Raphaelites, he bought work from the young William Holman Hunt and his own triptych, known as Past and Present, was influenced by Hunts work. The two outer scenes depict the separated mother and children a few later, now living in poverty. The paintings use of flashback — the central scene is occurring in the past — has been seen as a precursor of cinema, Egg was also an active organiser of exhibitions, being admired by fellow-artists for his dedication and fair mindedness. He was one of the organisers of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857 and he was elected to the Royal Academy in 1860. A member of the circle of friends that included Dickens and Wilkie Collins and he participated, as actor and costume designer, in their amateur theatricals, which were often conducted for charitable purposes as noted above. Dickens described Egg as a gentle little fellow, always sweet-tempered, humorous, conscientious, thoroughly good. In a 1953 radio interview, Evelyn Waugh was asked What painters do you admire most and he answered Augustus Egg I’d put among the highest. Edited by William Baker and William Malpas Clarke, London, Palgrave Macmillan,1999, the Dickens Circle, A Narrative of the Novelists Friendships. New York, E. P. Dutton,1919, Art in the Age of Queen Victoria, Treasures from the Royal Academy of Arts Permanent Collection
10.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner
Hunt's The Awakening Conscience, Smarthistory