Pre-Raphaelite

[pree-raf-ee-uh-lahyt, -rey-fee-]

noun

1. any of a group of English artists Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood formed in 1848, and including Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who aimed to revive the style and spirit of the Italian artists before the time of Raphael.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Pre-Raphaelite

/ ˌpriːˈræfəlaɪt /

noun

1. a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an association of British painters and writers including Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, founded in 1848 to combat the shallow conventionalism of academic painting and revive the fidelity to nature and the vivid realistic colour that they considered typical of Italian painting before Raphael

adjective

1. of, in the manner of, or relating to Pre-Raphaelite painting and painters

Other Word Forms

• Pre-Raphaelitism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pre-Raphaelite¹

First recorded in 1840–50; pre- + Raphael + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

I suppose the thing that I indulge myself most in is a really good Pre-Raphaelite painting or really good artwork.

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The building, home to the largest public Pre-Raphaelite collection in the world, closed in 2020 for building work, but partially reopened in 2022 for the Commonwealth Games.

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With her Pre-Raphaelite curls, plinking bangles and wide-eyed smile, the candidate who sweeps through the door in “Lucy,” which opened at the Minetta Lane Theater Monday night, appears closer to the former ideal.

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Her students from the 1960s almost uniformly recall Ms. Duncan-Jones as the picture of otherworldly Bohemian elegance, a figure pulled from a Pre-Raphaelite painting.

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Yet Boyce’s attempt to involve more people in the curatorial process was also viewed as censorship of a beloved Pre-Raphaelite painting and sparked national outrage.

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