Understanding the Pre-Raphaelites

These days, I am a strong proponent of what I call the "Ten Minute Seminar." What is that, you ask? It is my way of learning about a subject in a few moments rather than spending hours or days or weeks learning about it. You could also call it Minimalism vs Maximalism. (I would rather read a concisely written short story than War and Peace.)

I attribute this preferred method of learning to three things: First, well over 60% of my life is over...maybe more. So I want all my remaining time to be enjoyable and as well spent as possible. And there is so much left to do.

Second, so many books on just about any subject you can name could easily be squeezed into a few pages rather than hundreds. It seems books have to be bloated so they can charge higher prices. After all, who would pay $24.95 for a 10 page book?

Third, so many things I learned over the years are so buried in layers of other minutiae that I can't find them anymore. I use the 10 Minute Seminar to stimulate those long forgotten memories. If I want to learn more, I go buy the bloated book.

So it is with the Pre-Raphaelites. I learned about them many years ago, then forgot mostly everything but the name. This group of British painters were in vogue from about 1848 to the late 1860's . In short, they were fastidious painters of nature. Probably the best known of these painters was John Everett Millais.

Since I don't have a book on the Pre-Raphaelites, it was with great joy that I came upon an interesting article about them in the London Telegraph. The story, written by the Telegraph's art critic Richard Dormant earlier this year, is actually a review of a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London. But, it spends far more time talking about the artists and how they worked. I found it fascinating and hope you do also.

Rather than have you log onto the Telegraph web site (which requires a lengthy registration process), I copied the web page to my web site. I also added links to the artist's names so you could see their work at artcyclopedia.com.

Enjoy.