Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/53

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
xlvi
WOMEN IN THE FINE ARTS


of His Parents" have been called the Trilogy of Preraphaelite Art.

Millais did not long remain a strict disciple of this school, but soon adopted the fuller freedom of his later work, which maybe called that of modern naturalism. Rossetti remained a Preraphaelite through his short life, but his works could not be other than individual^ and their distinct personality almost forbade his being considered a disciple of any school.

Holman Hunt may be called the one persistent follower of this cult. He has consistently embodied his convictions in his pictures, the value of which to English art cannot yet be determined. This is also true of the marvellous work of Burne Jones; but although they have but few faithful followers, Preraphaelite art no longer needs defence nor apology.

Its secondary effect is far-reaching. To it may be largely attributed the more earnest study of Nature as well as the simplicity of treatment and lack of conventionality which now characterizes English art to an extent before unknown.

Impressionism is the most distinctive feature of nineteenth-century art, and is too large a subject to be treated in an introduction—any proper consideration of it demands a volume.

The entire execution of a picture out-of-doors was sometimes practised by Constable, more frequently by Turner, and some of the peculiarities of the French impressionist artists were shared by the English landscape painters of