Forgotten women who inspired Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to be celebrated at National Portrait Gallery exhibition

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Robert Dex @RobDexES13 December 2018

The forgotten women behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood will be celebrated in a new London exhibition, some 160 years after the paintings they inspired first went on show.

The Brotherhood counted artists such as Sir John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti among its ranks. They were known for their romantic reputation and intensely colourful and detailed work which caused a stir when first shown in 1849.

The National Portrait Gallery will now examine the role of the women who worked as models, gallery assistants and artists in their own right, through their Pre-Raphaelite Sisters ­exhibition.

Curator Dr Jan Marsh said the artists themselves acknowledged the importance of the women they worked with but “history” has erased their influence. She said the models should be seen as being like “actors bringing roles to life” for the painters.

She said: “If people think of the Pre-Raphaelites they think of lovely ladies with long hair and pouty lips but we need to see the models not as passive mannequins but as active participants in the making of the art.”

Among the women whose paintings, photographs and personal items feature in the show is Fanny Eaton, who was born in Jamaica to a mother who had been a slave.

She moved to the UK and married a Londoner and worked as a model for biblical scenes.

Exhibitions to look forward to in 2019

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Dr Marsh said: “She has basically not been seen. She appears in very many paintings but for a long time her identity was unknown.”

Also featured are paintings by ­Elizabeth Siddal, who was the model for Millais’s portrait of Ophelia, as well as artist Joanna Wells and models Annie Miller and Fanny Cornforth.

Dr Marsh added: “These women actively helped form the Pre-Raphaelite movement as we know it. It is time to acknowledge their agency and explore their contributions.” The National Portrait Gallery show opens in October, along with an exhibition dedicated to contemporary American artist Elizabeth Peyton, who is known for her portraits of public figures including David Bowie, Kurt Cobain and the Queen.

She has also made a series of new portraits inspired by artists including Leonardo da Vinci which will be included in the exhibition.

The gallery’s director, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, said: “I am delighted to announce these two new exhibitions for autumn 2019, both of which will be viscerally beautiful and quietly political in highlighting the vital role women have played in shaping artistic movements and genres.”

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