Gag me with a Pre-Raphaelite Spoon

Readers, I’ve sold out. I used to have a big snobby bias against Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and I’ve just submitted an exhibit proposal that includes one. Here is how it went down:

[FYI, I am going to attempt hyperlinks in this post. It might end in disaster]

My dislike of the Pre-Raphaelite movement stems from the fact that I associate it with cheesy dorm room posters. You know, this stuff. As a stuck-up art history student, I felt like this was art for people who wanted to seem artsy, but didn’t actually have any taste. Sort of like how most people buy Salvador Dali posters because they think it makes them look deep and subversive in some way. Look, Dali is great, but the melting clocks were painted in 1931. If you love Dali, fine. But don’t buy the poster to prove you have unusual, quirky taste. Unless your college roommate is actually Queen Victoria, no one is going to be impressed by your discovery of this little-known movement called “surrealism.” Today we literally have sharks rotting in tanks of formaldehyde that are considered passé. At least Dali was an innovator in his day. But were the Pre-Raphaelites ever actually a thing? Weren’t they kind of the 19^th century equivalents of Thomas Kinkade?

Well last semester I gained some respect. It turns out the Pre-Raphaelites were closely associated with the Arts & Crafts and Aesthetic movements. All of them disliked the Victorian ideal of beauty that prized delicate features and a body distorted by stiff corsets and giant skirts. They all dreamed of returning to a pre-industrial past and a more “natural” standard of beauty. You know that one lady who shows up in all their paintings?

Her name is Jane Morris, and by mainstream beauty ideals she was sort of weird looking. But the Pre-Raphaelites loved her bold features, thick wavy hair, and relaxed, un-corseted body. Jane, and other women associated with the movement, wore flowy, comfortable dresses that respected the natural form of the body (not just in paintings, but in every day life too). At the time they were regarded as bohemian weirdos, but in retrospect they were actually laying the foundation for the fashion revolution that would occur in the early 20^th century.

So hats off to you, Pre-Raphaelites. I still think your art is sort of cheesy, but I also appreciate not strapping myself into a girdle every morning. Well done.

Oh, and about my museum assignment. In my museum theory course we are creating a theoretical exhibit. I am doing an exhibit of famous works of art in which clothing is key to the meaning or story of the painting. With each work I will also show one historical artifact that adds context. So I chose this Rossetti painting, and will basically tell the story I just told you. So here is your ultra-exclusive preview of an exhibit that will never exist!

Dante Rossetti

La Pia de 'Tolomei

1868-80

Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas

Crotty & Richards (American Manufacturer)

Corset

c. 1872

Cotton, Metal, Bone

The Metropolitan Museum of Art