Pre-Raphaelite Society

LIVE NOW a new episode of our Pre-Raphaelite podcast for #MorrisMonth! To celebrate we are excited to welcome Gabriella Esser and Vanessa Manson from The William Morris Society to share the life and legacies of Morris. They tell us about a busy March filled with activities many of which are online.

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Fore-edge painting depicting a view of Venice (gondolas, lovely architecture, a colourful gold, red and yellow sky with clouds)

Fore-edge painting depicting a view of Venice (gondolas, lovely architecture, a colourful gold, red and yellow sky with clouds). Seller's hands holding the book to display the picture are in the image.

Just LOOK at this gorgeous fore-edge painting from Gaetano Polidori's 1919 'Traduzione del lament di Tasso di Lord Byron'. @preraphaelitesoc.bsky.social 😍

Thanks to everyone that came to our in person February lecture at Birmingham & Midland Institute, delivered by Helen Bratt-Wyton and Hannah Squire, co-curators of ‘The Rossettis: Siblings and Spouses’ exhibition opening at Wightwick Manor & Gardens, Saturday 7th March 2026.

Highly recommend! Am really looking forward to this exhibition. 😍

It’s a portrait of Christina by Dante, recently acquired for the collection at Wightwick.

Female rage today courtesy of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s depictions of Joan of Arc. #ThursdayThoughts

Upcoming Talk! 11.30am, Saturday 7th February at the Birmingham and Midland Institute. An in person talk by curators Helen Bratt-Wyton and Hannah Squire to discuss their upcoming exhibition ‘The Rossettis: Siblings and Spouses’ at Wightwick Manor.

www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/event-detail...

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Sharing images of the legendary Ancient Greek poet and LGBTQ+ hero, Sappho, to remind everyone our poetry competition ends soon, 1 February 2026.

If you’d like the chance to have your work published in the Pre-Raphaelite Society Magazine click here- www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/competitions/

1. 🖼️ Isabella and the Pot of Basil’, William Holman Hunt, 1867.

2. 🖼️ ‘Isabella and the Pot of Basil’, George Henry Grenville Manton, 1919.

3. 🖼️’Isabella and the Pot of Basil’, John William Waterhouse, 1907.

When you wish they’d just add a bit of seasoning to their food- basil anyone? #TastyThursday

(The subject is actually taken from a poem called ‘Isabella’ by John Keats and is about lost love and grief.)

Flocking to the Fireplace this #FreezingFriday in the UK.

🖼️ ‘At Home: A Portrait’, Walter Crane, 1872, Leeds Art Gallery.

🖼️ ‘Sister Helen’, Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, Wightwick Manor.

🖼️ ‘Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl’, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1864, Tate.

Reflections today. We want to reflect that the Pre-Raphaelite Society is an independent charity, it’s volunteer-run, and we don’t have the capacity to answer general PRB questions, or check the sheer volume of direct messages we receive on our social media. Please contact us via our website.

Verdant visions with Rossetti’s ‘The Salutation of Beatrice’ (1869)’, ‘My Lady Greensleeves’ (1863) and ‘Il Ramoscello’ (The Twig) (1865) for this week’s #WednesdayWonder.

For more content and to join our community, become a member of the society by clicking the link in our bio.

In the 1890s, Caleb gave Minna her first camera. Recognising the commercial potential of her photographs, Keene registered her studies for copyright in 1903. She worked in South Africa and England and gained recognition producing portraits, landscapes, nature studies, and scenes of everyday life.

Born in 1861 in Germany, Keene (née Bergmann) (1861-1943) she moved to England around the late 1870s or early 1880s, where she worked as a governess and met her husband, artist and decorator Caleb Keene.

Light, Camera, Action: Light displays are an important part of New Year celebrations the world over, so we are celebrating today with Pre-Raphaelite Photography by Minna Keene.

1. 🖼️ ‘Pomegranates’, c.1910.

2. 🖼️ ‘Woman with flowers (Violet)’, circa 1910.

3. 🖼️ ‘Fenn Lancaster’.

🖼️ ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1857-8, Fogg Art Museum.

🖼️ ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1867.

🖼️ ‘The Blue Closet’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1857, @tate.bsky.social.

A Merry Musical Rossetti Christmas.
We hope you liked our 2025 #ArtistAdventCalendar.

We are taking a break from social media till the new year. See you in 2026, when we will have more lectures, events, podcast episodes, journal articles and magazines, and more social media content, of course.

Day twenty four of our #ArtistAdventCalendar, and to celebrate all the hard work he will be doing later today,‘Old Father Christmas’, by Scottish artist, William Ewart Lockhart (1846–1900), in the collection of The Hunterian, University of Glasgow @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social

Ann Macbeth for day twenty three of our #ArtistAdventCalendar.

🖼️ ‘Angels Garlanding the Infant Christ’, Ann Macbeth, watercolour heightened with gouache and gold paint.

Ann Macbeth was a British embroiderer, designer, teacher and author and a member of the Glasgow Movement.

Amis and Amile were devoted companions and knights, born on the same day, look identical, and share everything, becoming like ‘second selves’. After being apart for a few years, ‘they lighted down from their horses, and embraced and kissed each other, and gave thanks to God that they were found.’

The centerpiece of the design features a kneeling pair, with angels flying above in a sunbeam lit sky. The couple are embraced by nature and surrounded by wild flowers.

This drawing must have been exhibited as it bears an inscription, which partly reads-
‘ to hold a small Exhibition of, Jewelry, and Bookbinding, March 28th and 29th, 1905.’

May created a detailed hand-stitched silk book pouch, from this sketch. The book pouch was designed to snugly fit inside it her father William Morris’ translation of the old French romance, ‘Amis and Amile’. Her pouch therefore features an image from the book it protects/enhances.

A design by May Morris for day twenty-two of our #ArtistAdventCalendar.

🖼️ Design for ‘Amis and Amile’ silk book pouch, May Morris, 1905, @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social.

From Edward Burne-Jones to John Duncan, Annie Swynnerton, Thomas Cooper Gotch, Phoebe Anna Traquair, Anna Lea Merritt and William Holman Hunt, which was your favourite advent picture last week? #ArtistAdventCalendar

Hunt created three versions of this painting, this is the original, at @kebleoxford.bsky.social The second, painted shortly afterwards, can be seen in the Manchester Art Gallery. The third version in St Paul’s was painted around fifty years later, with the assistance of Edward Robert Hughes.

Lantern Light with William Holman Hunt for day twenty-one of our #ArtistAdventCalendar and to celebrate the longest night of the year #WinterSolstice.

🖼️ ‘The Light of the World’, William Holman Hunt, 1851-52, @kebleoxford.bsky.social.