In Which I Tony Stark A Post On Pre-Raphaelites

In 1848 a group of seven people called themselves 'The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood' in London in one of the members parents' houses. Well three gentleman were the original members. The rest were invited or requested to join later. They were under 25 (at least the three founders were. I haven't researched enough for the rest) and were disillusioned with the then current genre of painting. I'm not sure how you found a Brotherhood like this, but all I can picture is a group a Romantic Era artistic gentleman that are disenchanted with how the world is making glorified pinky promises to change things. It's my favourite pretentious boy band ever. So if anyone asks that's my answer. This is my favourite boy-band even though they weren't actually a band.

This group lasted for five years and apparently made quite the controversy. Ruffling feathers with paintings others called blasphemes. Notably Charles Dickens who thought John Millais's painting called 'Christ in the House of His Parents' made the 'Holy Family' look like alcoholics and slum dwellers and he thought the Mary in the painting looked ugly. The model for Mary was John Millais's sister-in-law Mary Hodgkinson so oops there with the tact Dickens. 

In fact, according to the Wikipedia article on this painting, Dickens described Mary as 'An alcoholic who looks so hideous in her ugliness, she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England.'

This is the painting btw. Mary is in the blue dress. 

Along with the other criticisms of it (some being that no one was wearing togas and that is was dirtier than depicted in most artwork involving Jesus or the apostles. Not even mentioning some of the more racist comments about it.) There was such a controversy about this painting that Queen Victoria herself requested to see the painting in private. But this painting and the controversy over this painting made the Pre-Raphaelite Brother-Hood movement famous.

I guess the Brotherhood's devotion to medievalist artwork and attention to detail was seen by some as jarring and ugly. I am getting a lot of this from a Wikipedia article not going to lie. Others loved this style and it reflected in their art. Eventually as all boy-bands tend to do they broke up after losing and replacing a member and while the style of the brother-hood continued, other artists could no longer offically label it PRB (Pre-Raphaelite Brother-Hood). So I guess the other ones count as off-brand knock-offs?

It was a wild ride for this group of guys. They had controversy, scandals, praise, pretty much everything you could hope for or expect from artistic 25 year old or younger members that make a brotherhood in their parents London basement. This is one of my favourite things ever and I needed to share. 

So shout out to that one comment on one of Taylor Swift's Folklore songs that said it had Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic and I needed to know what that meant which sent me down this rabbit-hole. I'm very grateful.