Truth in art: William Michael Rossetti and nineteenth-century realist criticis

"Truth in Art: William Michael Rossetti and Nineteenth-Century Realist Criticism" examines the art criticism of an underrated member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and places it within the context of Victorian culture. After an account of Rossetti's family background and education, Chapter One gives an overview of the nature and scope of Rossetti's periodical reviewing and the function of much reviewing in Victorian society. Chapter Two assesses William Rossetti's role in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, first as editor of the Germ, then as a beginning reviewer. His early realist creed, derived in part from John Ruskin's "truth to nature" but characterized from the beginning by an individual cast of thought, is seen in reviews of fellow Pre-Raphaelites Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt. His outlook broadens, however, with frequent reviewing of a variety of works, and his point of view is examined in relation to Ruskin and other critics such as F. G. Stephens.;Chapter Three discusses a crucial development in Rossetti's thought: a new appreciation for "style" born of exposure to French art. In the 1860s Rossetti's aesthetic ideas underwent further development with his enthusiasm for Japanese art, and Chapter Four examines how this tradition promoted Rossetti's sensitive response to James McNeill Whistler. This chapter also presents new findings on Rossetti's own collection of Japanese art. Chapter Six analyzes Rossetti's different reactions to the Classical Revival and Gothic Revival, both of which contributed to a new phase of Pre-Raphaelitism that could sometimes satisfy both Rossetti's aestheticism and his realism through its vital spirit of the past.;Rossetti's final approach, best characterized by his own phrase "aesthetic realism," emerges between 1874 and 1878. Reviews of exhibitions at the Dudley and Grosvenor Galleries, showcases for the Aesthetic Movement, place him squarely in the nineteenth-century realist tradition, but also show a twentieth-century determination to examine works closely as autonomous objects. The study concludes by defining Rossetti's "realism," comparing it to the positions of fellow critics, especially Sidney Colvin, and positing Rossetti's importance as an authoritative spokesman for humanistic values in Victorian culture.