Pre-Raphaelite Camera: Aspects of Victorian Photography

Truth to nature, declared the Pre-Raphaelite painters, is the essence of art to render the 'distinct character' of every 'flower, rock and cloud'. But by the 1850s a new medium - photography - was gaining ground and threatened, by its increasing ability to capture sharp detail, to outstrip the Pre-Rahaelites i their stated aim. Fascinated by the parallel development of these rival arts Michael Bartram looks both at the use Pre-Raphaelites made of the camera and at the Pre-Raphaelite influence on photographers in their subject matter and approach. The splendid interweaving of photographs - many reproduced for the first time - and Pre-Raphaelite paintings is a visual delight.