Trained in London, Italy and France, he combined a Pre-Raphaelite style from Burne-Jones with Symbolism of Puvis de Chavannes.
Pre-Raphaelite
A painter of fine landscapes in Pre-Raphaelite style, mainly around the countryside near Worcester and in North Wales.
Unwittingly, and outside their manifesto, the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren developed a new British narrative painting.
His paintings are set in mediaeval times, with tales of chivalry, or in ‘Regency’ times, with tricorn hats and jovial men selling ribbons door-to-door.
Often considered a Pre-Raphaelite, with common themes, he was an academic outsider whose photo-real paintings are finely crafted fantasies.
Crammed into this crowded street scene in one of London’s leafy suburbs is a detailed account of the breadth and depth of contemporary Victorian society.
In just a few years of painting, he made two of the major Pre-Raphaelite landscapes, but died of dysentery in Cairo at the age of only 35.
Painted entirely in front of the motif, and in fine detail, Brett followed Ruskin’s rules for landscape paintings, but this was rejected by the Royal Academy.
Two major works in his later years: ‘Work’, showing a crowded street in Victorian London, and 12 large murals for Manchester Town Hall.
After painting his masterpiece ‘The Last of England’, he returned to landscapes made with great attention to detail, in front of the motif. And they sold.
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