der to
study for the Roman Catholic priesthood; and Arthur Hughes.[3]

But the main importance of the Pre-Raphaelite movement to romantic
literature resides in the poetry of Rossetti, and in the inspiration
which this communicated to younger men, like Morris and Swinburne, and
through them to other and still younger followers. The history of
English painting is no part of our subject, but Rossetti's painting and
his poetry so exactly reflect each other, that some definition or brief
description of Pre-Raphaelitism seems here to be called for, ill
qualified as I feel myself to give any authoritative account of the
matter.[4]

And first as to methods: the Pre-Raphaelites rejected the academic system
whereby the canvas was prepared by rubbing in bitumen, and the colours
were laid upon a background of brown, grey, or neutral tints. Instead of
this, they spread their colours directly upon the white, unprepared
canvas, securing transparency by juxtaposition rather than by overlaying.
They painted their pictures bit by bit, as in frescoes or mosaic work,
finishing each portion as they went along, until no part of the canvas
was left blank. The Pre-Raphaelite theory was sternly realistic. They
were not to copy from the antique, but from nature. For landscape
background, they were to take their easels out of doors. In figure
painting they were to work, if possible, from a living model and not from
a lay figure. A model once selected, it was to be painted as it was in
each particular, and without imaginative deviation. "Every
Pre-Raphaelite landscape background," wrote Ruskin, "is painted, to the
last touch, in the open air from the thing itself. Every Pre-Raphaelite
figure, however studied in expression, is a true portrait of some living
person. Every minute accessory is painted in the same manner." [5] In
this fashion their earliest works were executed. In Rossetti's "Girlhood
of Mary Virgin," exhibited in 1849, the figure of St. Anne is a portrait
of the artist's mother; the Virgin, of his sister Christina; and Joseph,
of a man-of-all-work employed in the family. In Millais' "Lorenzo and
Isabella"--a subject from Keats--Isabella's brother, her lover, and one
of the guests, are portraits of Deverell, Stephens, and the two
Rossettis. But this severity of realism was not long maintained. It was
a discipline, not a final method. Even in Rossetti's second painting,
"Ecce Ancilla Domini," the faces of the Virgin and