Product Description

This lavishly illustrated book provides a fresh appraisal of the Pre-Raphaelite artists of mid-Victorian England and their radical departure from artistic conventions. Tim Barringer explores the meanings encoded in Pre-Raphaelite paintings and finds a dynamic energy that arises from paradoxes at the heart of the movement, between past and present, historicism and modernity, and symbolism and realism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #289399 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Tim Barringer is assistant professor of the history of art at Yale University. He formerly taught at the universities of London and Birmingham and has published widely on Victorian visual culture.

Customer Reviews

A Competent Introduction to the Pre-Raphaelites
"Reading the Pre-Raphaelites" has been on the market for five years now (as of 2004), and continues to hold up well as an introduction to Pre-Raphaelite painting. People who are already familiar with Pre-Raphaelite Art (and its copious bibliography!) will not find too much here that is new, but for the not-yet-expert, this book works well in presenting many of the essential Pre-Raphaelite themes and paintings in an orderly and easy-to-understand manner.

The book is organized topically, with separate chapters on Pre-Raphaelite medievalism, nature painting, modern life, religious painting, and Post-Pre-Raphaelitism (the latter including Whistler, Burne-Jones, and the Aesthetic Movement.)

The author tosses in a bit of "critical theory" from time to time, and on occasion can be judgmental about individual works. These negatives, though, are easily overcome by the author's clarity of writing and competence of interpretation, which lucidly ground these paintings in their social and artistic milieu. The book's bibliography and index are marginal, but the quality of its color printing is exceptional, much better than in many more expensive art books.

In summary, this book would be a good buy for the student or other reader who wants a general, thematic introduction to the Pre-Raphaelites.

Excellent rethinking of a generation of painters
This is a well-written, beautifully produced book, with much to tell the sort of person who, like me, might normally walk quickly by Pre-Raphaelite paintings in a gallery. Barringer explains the rationale, the techniques, and the lives of these artists in fascinating detail and makes one see what really is of interest in their works. He is extremely sympathetic to their projects, without being blindly uncritical. And he is candid about his debt to other art historians and literary critics. It seems to me that there is no better book on the subject for someone interested in 19th-century England or in the rise and fall of an intellectual movement.

disppointing
The previous reviewer is, alas, right. A depressingly judgememntal book, far more interested in righteous pronouncement on predictable topics than in the exploration of art works far more complex than this author is willing to allow. The Pre-Raphaelites need new literature. Much of the writing now extant is stale and repetitive, but this is not the way forward. Look at the paintings, Dr Barringer - don't simply 'read' them for coded messages.