The pre-raphaelite book by Andre Rose.

The pre-raphaelites book by Andre Rose.

My opinion about this book will be very subjective and will be based on my conception of this sort of books.

The book is for the people who already know something about pre-raphaelites,it doesn't give general information.I would recommend it for further studies of this trend of art.

Pluses of the book:

First of all ,this book is very interesting and tells the reader a lot of information about the Victorian period itself (i.e. ideas, problems, trends).This gives the reader an opportunity to understand the reasons why the artists were interested in certain plots and purports.

The most interesting part of the book to my mind is second(which is almost 2/3 of the volume). In it Andrea Rose describes in a dtailed way paintings.This can be compared with exciting walk along the halls of the art galleries in opposite to lecture about the art of pre-raphaelites in general.I learned that even rather boring paintings like portrait of Ruskin by Millais can be very interesting.It turned out that while making this picture John Everett was falling in love with wife of the famous journalist. After this painting was finished Ruskin divorced with his wife who married Millais.

Another dascribtion of the painting amazed me a lot.The work was made by William Holman Hunt and it is called ''The awakening conscience''.From the first sight the painting seem to depict just twbo lovers,but the book advises us to pay attention to simbols like threads on the floor.All those details reveal the main idea of this moralistic painting -prostitution and attempts of the heroine to start a new life.Andrea Rose tells the reader that the choice of this topic wasn't accidental-William Hollman Hunt fell in love with a prostitute and was trying to improve her,as he found out later -in vain.Hunt even used this woman as a model for this picture.Background information about the paintings in this book is everything but boring.

I didn't like that there are a lot of quotations from the memoirs of painters and bits of poems.I am not a fan of poetry and as I am not a native speaker it was really boring and hard for me to understand these texts.I undestand the intentions of the author to illustrate and to prove his ideas, to help the readers understand what inspired the painters,what they tried to depict in their pictures.Poetry of the previous centu y is a hard reading ,so I just skipped these parts of the book.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and ,to my mind,it is worth reading as it helps to understand mysterious pre-raphaelites.

Art gallery of Soth Australia

My impressions about pre-raphaelite collection in the Art gallery of South Australia.

The collection of paintings,created by pre-raphaelites is divided into two parts :pictures by members of pre-rapaelite brotherhood(Hunt, Burne-Jones)(ground floor) and paintings by their followers(1st floor).It wasn't very easy for me to find an amazingly beautiful room with Tiffany glass windows,furniture and textile by Morris and Co(almost all pre-raphaelits participated in creating designs for this company) where there were wonderful pictures like ''Perseus and Andromeda''by Burne-Jones.

Creative work of Burne-Jones is represented rather well in this gallery:there was a book with illustrations, a tapestry (''Adoration of the Magy'') and a painting illustrating many-sided personality of this outstanding representative of pre-rapaelite movement.The tapestry is interesting from the point of view that it was the most popular ecclesiastical work ever produced by Morris and Co .

It was wery interesting to see the work of this painter in different media.

In this room(so called Morris room) there was also a painting by the founder of PRB -W.H.Hunt.It was called'' Christ and two Marys''.The work impressed me by it's unusual and beautiful color combinations (violet with blue and green).The work itself was very unusual-Christ was more realistic then in the works created before by other artists.

Morris's room astounded me most of all by textile and wallpaper designed by Pre-raphaelits.It was more then just beautiful-it was incredibly wonderfull.It was so impessive that I returned to this room two more times in following days.I want to have the same upholstery,curtains as in the exhibition.Walking in this room I was thinking why the people who created such a beauty and surrounded themselves by it were so unhappy in their life?Beautiful and harmonious homes and paintings doesn't bring happiness -that what was I thinking about in this room.

Second part of collection is exhibited in a beatifuul room with Rodin's sculptures.The pictures that I liked most of all were -''Priestess of Dephi'' by John Collier and ''Circe Invidiosa'' by J.W.Waterhouse.

The first painting stroke me by its beautiful shades of dark colour of the clothes of this priestess.The woman depicted in the painting was gorgeous ,very rare type of beauty.Combination of precise detailes of this work of art and bright ,shining colors produced the effect that impressed me.

The second painting depicts a woman that is putting poison into the sea water to turn her rival into the monster.The woman is actually standing on a sea-monster.Dramatic effect of this picture was created by contrast of cold green and black-the main colors of this work.Those colors symbolise awful,vile intentions of the woman.The dress of the heroine is shimmering with different nuances of green and blue- definitely very nice powerful picture.

My visit to the Art gallery of South Australia was extremely pleasant,cognitive and I think that collection of pre-raphaelits in it is one of the best in Australia.