Pre-Raphaelite Inspiration on Pinterest

Fashions for September 1850

I finally put up a Pinterest board with many of the images of Pre-Raphaelite painting, photographs, settings, and fashion that I looked at while writing Ophelia's Muse. Check it out to see pictures of the magnificent Crystal Palace from the Great Exposition of 1851, the house where the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded, and what a Victorian millinery might have looked like.

I also include many of the paintings both of and by Lizzie Siddal, including her self-portrait and many of the sketches of her that Dante Gabriel made. It's interesting to compare their two views of her side by side.

Jimmy Page on the Pre-Raphaelites

There's a fantastic interview in this week's Financial Times with Jimmy Page, guitarist from Led Zeppelin, on his admiration for all things Pre-Raphaelite and Arts & Crafts. The interview takes place in the Leighton House Museum, which is around the corner from Page's own historic house, Tower House.  Tower House is a Victorian era home dominated by a gothic-revival turret and designed by the architect and designer William Burges, "who sought artistic refuge from industrialisation in a fantasy vision of the Middle Ages."

Page speaks about scouring second-hand shops for Arts & Crafts furniture in the sixties and seventies, and his fascination with the Pre-Raphaelites.  He tells the FT that "I got just caught up in that whole romantic notion of the Pre-Raphaelites, the mission they were on [to revolutionise art]. It was something that really captured my imagination, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.”

Check out the rest of this fantastic interview here.

Creating a Pre-Raphaelite Guide to London and Environs

The Tate Britain 

While working on Ophelia's Muse, I was lucky enough to be able to be able to visit many of the paintings and locations in and around London that I was writing about. Some locations, such as Cranbourne Alley, where Lizzie worked as a milliner crafting bonnets, are long gone. But others, like Hyde Park, can take you back to Victorian days with just a squint of the eyes and a little imagination. And there were many places to see Pre-Raphaelite painting and Victorian artifacts - some major ones are the Tate Britain, where Millais's painting of Ophelia hangs, and the Leighton House Museum, the painter Frederic, Lord Leighton's stunning home and studio, which houses a collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. 

Leighton House

I'm putting together a list of must-see Pre-Raphaelite locations in London and the surrounding towns, for fans of the book and others interested in the movement. There are so many great websites out there, I'm hoping that the list can serve as a guide for both armchair online exploration and visitors to the area. 

If you have a favorite Pre-Raphaelite or Victorian museum, house, location, or shop, please share them with me and I'll add them to the list!