Love, Lust and Beauty: The radical and scandalous Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Were the Pre-Raphaelites the first ‘modern’ British artists? They looked back to the past and yet their work was incredibly forward thinking. The avant-garde group of Royal Academy students rebelled against everything they had been taught: rejecting Raphael and instead turning to early Renaissance and Flemish art for inspiration.

They developed new and innovative ways of working; painting outdoors using bright, modern colours, and with a distinctive attention to detail. The group’s personal lives were equally fascinating; full of scandals, opiate overdoses and affairs!