Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - Public Controversy

Public Controversy

In 1850 the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood became the subject of controversy after the exhibition of Millais's painting Christ in the House of His Parents, considered to be blasphemous by many reviewers, notably Charles Dickens. Dickens considered Millais' Mary to be ugly. Millais had used his sister-in-law, Mary Hodgkinson, as the model for Mary in his painting. The brotherhood's medievalism was attacked as backward-looking and its extreme devotion to detail was condemned as ugly and jarring to the eye. According to Dickens, Millais made the Holy Family look like alcoholics and slum-dwellers, adopting contorted and absurd "medieval" poses. A rival group of older artists, The Clique, used its influence against the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and its principles were publicly attacked by the President of the Academy, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake.

After the controversy, Collinson left the brotherhood and the remaining members met to discuss whether he should be replaced by Charles Allston Collins or Walter Howell Deverell, but were unable to make a decision. From that point the group disbanded, though its influence continued. Artists who had worked in the style initially continued but no longer signed works "PRB".

The brotherhood found support from the critic John Ruskin, who praised its devotion to nature and rejection of conventional methods of composition. The Pre-Raphaelites were influenced by Ruskin's theories and he wrote to The Times defending their work and subsequently met them. Initially, he favoured Millais, who travelled to Scotland in the summer of 1853 with Ruskin and Ruskin's wife, Effie, to paint Ruskin's portrait. Effie's increasing attachment to Millais, including Ruskin's non-consummation of their marriage) created a crisis, leading Effie to leave and have the marriage annulled on grounds that it had not been consummated, and marry Millais, which caused a public scandal. Millais abandoned the Pre-Raphaelite style after his marriage, and Ruskin savagely attacked his later works. Ruskin continued to support Hunt and Rossetti and provided funds to encourage the art of Rossetti's wife Elizabeth Siddal.