He turned to painting the waters and coasts of the English Channel, with acclaim at the Royal Academy and rich rewards, sufficient to pay for the boats he used as studios.
Ruskin
A relatively latecomer, he started painting Pre-Raphaelite landscapes in 1856, with stunning results in the Alps, and his monumental view of Florence, but those proved unsuccessful.
Mountain paintings by JMW Turner, John Ruskin, John Brett, and Georg Janny.
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.
After training in Belgium, he painted a series of narrative works, then a finely detailed landscape of a view over London. Success eluded him.
Named after the artist and poet, he was precious, and went on to be a very successful portraitist. Here some of his narrative and other works.
Great Pre-Raphaelite women didn’t stand behind their partners, but in front of them, as their muses and models. Masterpieces with two stories to tell.
How one critic established the success of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, but set its landscape painters an impossible challenge.
Why did the Pre-Raphaelites want to return to the ‘purity’ of painting before Raphael? Did they succeed?
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