William Holman Hunt - The Triumph of the Innocents 1883-4

Hunt began painting this subject while on a visit to the Holy Land in the 1870s. It shows Mary, Joseph and infant Jesus escaping to Egypt as King Herod kills all the first-born males or 'innocents' in Bethlehem, described in The Gospel of Matthew, 2: 16-18. Hunt originally intended to show just the Holy Family, but he later decided to add the martyred innocents. The Holy Family are surrounded by the spirits of the children slain by Herod. Hunt wanted the bubbles, or ‘airy globes’ which accompany the procession, to convey a sense of the waves of ‘the streams of eternal life’.

From a letter from William Holman Hunt to William Bell Scott, 5 January, 1880, reproduced in W. Minto (ed), Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William Bell Scott, vol 2, 1892

The beings I want to represent really differ in this, that they have only just left this life instead of having got altogether established as celestial creatures. Some of them, if not all, may indeed scarcely have altogether lost the last warmth of mortal life. It seems desirable, therefore, to avoid a treatment which would make them like the angels who regard the face of our Father in heaven. A support to this view I find also in the desirability of avoiding to distinctly pronounce the figures to be either subjective or objective. I wish to avoid positively declaring them to be more than a vision to the Virgin conjured up by her maternal love for her own child, the Saviour, who is to be calling her attention to them.

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones - The Morning of the Resurrection 1886

Burne-Jones began this painting in 1882, but did not complete it until four years later, when it was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery. The scene depicted is Mary Magdalene's visit to the empty tomb, where she encounters the resurrected Christ, accompanied by angels. After the death of the Hon.Laura Lyttleton (nee Tennant), a young friend of whom the artist was particularly fond, Burne-Jones inscribed a personal memorial or 'oblation' in the lower left-hand corner. He made at least two other versions of the subject, including the one, which, until recently, was at St Peter's Church, Vere Street.

Fashion

http://www.easyart.com/trends/2012/09/fashion-goes-pre-raphaelite-for-aw12/

Frederic George Stephens - The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda) c.1850

This is a scene from The Clerk’s Tale, one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth-century Canterbury Tales. The marquis of Saluzzo has fallen in love with a poor but beautiful peasant girl, Griselda, and is proposing marriage to her. He goes on to subject her to a series of appalling trials to test her love. But Griselda is patient and eventually wins his devotion.The background of this picture was painted from life in the kitchen of the rural lodgings that Stephens shared with his friends Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, at Knole in Kent.

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones - Study of the Pilgrim for 'The Pilgrim at the Garden of Love' c.1872-7

The figure in this study is derived from the Pilgrim who is the focus of a needlework frieze, designed by Burne-Jones, illustrating Chaucer's allegory 'The Romaunt of the Rose'. The frieze was originally installed at Rounton Grange at Northallerton, but is now in the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. Several of the frieze designs were adapted as paintings, including an unfinished picture showing the Pilgrim standing alongside the wall of the enchanted garden (Victoria and Albert Museum). This highly finished drawing is close to the details of that work, and would have served as the model from which Burne-Jones's assistant, Matthew Webb, transferred the design to canvas.

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones - St Oswald 1875

George Frederic Watts - Ruth and Boaz c.1835 - 7

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, - Ruth and Boaz 1879

Burne-Jones designed this scene and no.66 for a window in All Hallows Church, Allerton. With two other Biblical subjects, they act as predellas (small panels below the main picture) to the larger representation of four female figures: Miriam, Ruth, Esther and the Virgin Mary. Each scene is related to the figure above it. In this cartoon, the widow Ruth is depicted at the moment when her gleaning in the fields is interrupted by the rich landowner Boaz. He has observed her dutiful attendance on her mother-in-law, and later rewards her modesty and virtue with an offer of marriage.

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones - Parable of the Burning Pot, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers published 1881

Fat is a Pre-Raphaelite Issue - Kirsty Stonell Walker

I won't pinch any of Kirsty's pictures but such a great post and a new sketch of Fanny Cornfoth.

http://fannycornforth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/fat-is-pre-raphaelite-issue.html?showComment=1349079621171#c3462230098498886269

Saturday 17 November at 2.30pm at the Russell Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, East Cliff, Bournemouth, Dorset

Meet art historian and author Kirsty Stonell Walker, who will reveal the extraordinary life of Fanny Cornforth, one of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's infamous models

Free Event, Donations Welcome

Booking Essential. Call 01202 451820 for details.