Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

The Israelite general Jephthah was forced to kill his only daughter after he rashly promised he would sacrifice to God the first thing he saw on his return home if he was victorious in battle. At the Royal Academy in 1876, this painting was exhibited with the quotation 'Alas, my daughter! Thou has brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back'. (Judges XI, 35)

Rosamund Clifford (possibly before 1140 – c. 1176), often called "The Fair Rosamund" or "Rose of the World" (Latin: rosa mundi), was a medieval English noblewoman and mistress of Henry II, King of England. She became famous in English folklore.

Three sisters – Elizabeth, Diana and Mary – are playing cards. The game and the work’s title hint at competition over who would marry first, presenting courtship as a game that these women are learning to play. This was seen as important for woman at the time. Writer and art collector Walter Armstrong commissioned John Everett Millais to paint this portrait of his daughters. He hoped the painting would help to raise the social profile of his family. Millais borrowed the title and the composition from a popular photograph of the day.

Collection: Tate Britain / National Gallery of British Art, London, United Kingdom

Waterhouse's title is loosely derived from Chaucer's dream poem, Romaunt of the Rose, itself adapted from the 13th-century French romance: Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris. The narrator embarks on a pilgrimage with the god of love, who leads him to a rose symbolizing perfect love. The poem had been treated by Waterhouse's early inspiration, Sir Edward-Burne Jones, in preparation for a tapestry. Burne-Jones depicts the rose personified as a young girl in an oil entitled The Heart of the Rose, (1889, Private collection; fig. 1). She embodies the beauty of the sentiment represented, and becomes a love object for the young poet.

Here we see golden light filter through trees, illuminating a stream cluttered with abandoned stones. The scene was painted on location in either Wimbledon Park in London, or near Hogsmil River in Ewell, Surrey. The artist was likely working side-by-side with fellow Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais. Both artists gave their landscapes a story by adding figures or, in this case, the ‘haunted manor’. Its windows reflect the evening sun as though they are ablaze. Hogsmil River also became the setting for Ophelia.

Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (c.1122-1204), the wife of the English King Henry II, was reputed to have murdered his mistress Fair Rosamund and appears here with a poisoned cup and dagger. The red cord in her left hand is that which showed the way through the maze to Rosamund's bower.

(Gerrish Nunn, Pamela. "All is not Gold that Glitters: The Gilded Apple (1899)." Polysèmes 15 (2016).

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Collection: Private Collection

Here, the angel Gabriel is telling the Virgin Mary that she will give birth to Jesus Christ. Dante Gabriel Rossetti portrays his sister, the poet Christina Rossetti, as Mary. Both siblings were exploring personal perspectives in their work, engaging with intimate emotions and rejecting more detached approaches. In this painting, the artist adapts medieval depictions of the Annunciation to this more modern, psychological view. Unusually, we see Mary in her bedroom where the angel has disturbed her dreams. Anxiety is suggested by the eerie colouring, her wide eyes and shrinking pose.

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Collection: Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Collection: Private Collection

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Rendered in exquisite detail, the present scene is rich with the sense of clandestine romance so typical to the work of artists such as Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir John Everett Millais. The adoring soldier, his pole and shield discarded nearby, reclines in serenade before his lover who, dressed in a luminous cerulean blue gown, gazes directly at the viewer. The composition is rich with symbolic intimations, from the single magpie perched among the foliage of the abundant orange tree, to the rosary beads clasped in the hands of the female figure.

Collection: Private Collection