| In 1848 John Everett Millais (1829-1896), William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Five years later Millais apparently abandoned the art revolution and joined the London Royal Academy of Arts as an Associate: by 1863 Millais was a full member. This period coincides with dramatic changes in the Victorian painting and reproductive print market. Advances in printing technology multiplied the number of prints possible from a single engraving, increasing profits while lowering the cost per print. The ranks of the art-purchasing middle classes surged, and they avidly collected easel paintings and the less-expensive framed reproductive prints, preferring domestic narratives. Competing dealer/publishers, who specialized in the mass merchandising of art, drove the prices for truly popular paintings and their copyrights to astronomical heights.;The boom in the print market had a demonstrable impact on Millais' art, enticing him to subjects and designs which might be engraved and marketed as pendants to previously published prints. Like most English artists during the forties and early fifties, the Pre-Raphaelites desired to achieve wealth and immortality by elevating the tastes and morals of the nation through the example of noble subjects and style. Prints could affect a wider public than exhibition paintings alone, and popular prints guaranteed financial security and recognition.;Towards the end of the 1850s, however, there was widespread disillusionment with the artistic premise of moral didacticism, and many converted to the doctrine of "art for art's sake," spurning wealth and acclaim as evidence of an artistic sell-out. But by then Millais had a wife, children, debts and a desire to emulate the lifestyles of popular painters and novelists who embraced the Victorian cult of contemporary success. This monograph of Millais chronicles the evolution of his views and art from Pre-Raphaelitism to pragmatic commercialism. |
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