Room six  Pre-Raphaelite paintings  The Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood| was formed in London in 1848 by seven young artists
dissatisfied with the standards prevailing in British art. Its
three chief members were William Holman Hunt|, John Everett
Millais| and Dante Gabriel Rossetti|. They advocated an art of
extreme truth to nature, which they understood in different
ways. They painted in bright, hard colours, with great attention
to detail, and frequently chose high-minded, moralistic
subjects, loaded with symbolism. They called themselves Pre-
Raphaelites because they admired the 'primitive' artists of the
Italian renaissance of the period before Raphael.  Although
their first exhibited works, which included Millais'
'Isabella|', were reviled, the group rapidly became influential.
Young artists in provincial cities soon began to imitate them.
Liverpool was no exception, establishing itself as a notable
source of support in the mid-1850s when its Academy repeatedly
awarded its annual prize to Pre-Raphaelite paint