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“The Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum”

Through… “The Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum”

Through October 8

The Frick Art Museum

The Frick Art and Historical Center

7227 Reynolds Street

(412) 371-0600

Suggested $5 donation

Softly painted figures look past the spectator as if they are daydreaming. Wild flowers and tall grass grow beside a stream of clear water, forming a dreamlike image. Adorning the walls at The Frick Art Museum is a collection of surreal paintings that illustrates a world that borders on reality.

“Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum,” is an exhibition that features close to 130 examples of oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, ceramics, jewelry and furniture from the Pre-Raphaelite movement.

The Pre-Raphaelite movement began in mid-19th-century Great Britain when a group of young artists, all students at the Royal Academy of Art, joined to rebel against the contemporary artistic conventions and standards.

The artists felt that art created before the time of the High Renaissance master Raphael was pure and direct and that their immediate predecessors followed an untrue belief. The leading academician of the day, Sir Joshua Reynolds, urged others to “avoid the particular,” in contrast to the Pre-Raphaelites who praised the particular.

The work produced from this artistic movement celebrates the importance and beauty of the natural world, literary legends spawned from Dante and Chaucer, and Biblical tales and mythology.

Frederick Sandy’s “Mary Magdalene” (1858-1860) depicts a woman with long, unkempt hair surrounded by rich, natural hues of green and warm reds. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “Water Willow” (1871) also portrays a woman embracing the natural world around her as her ivory-colored hands hold water willows.

Ford Madox Brown brings to life literary works in his paintings “Romeo and Juliet” (1870), “The Corsair’s Return” (1871-1880) and “The Dream of Sardanapalus” (1871). All of Brown’s works embrace a mystic quality; he captures powerful moments in which his painted figures emit passion through their poses and gazes.

Two impressive paintings on exhibit are John Everett Millais’ “The Waterfall” (1853) and William Holman Hunt’s “Isabella and the Pot of Basil” (1867-1868), both of which are meticulously detailed. From a distance, it is indiscernible whether the works of art are paintings or photographs. Unlike many of the other paintings on exhibit in which there are soft lines, Millais’ and Hunt’s paintings are crisp and stress the Pre-Raphaelite belief that detail was significant.

Also on display are several portraits by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a key figure during the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Rossetti’s Stunners, paintings of various women, are a hallmark of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Several female artists are also included in the collection. Works by Marie Spartali Stillman, Winifred Sandys, Elizabeth Siddal and Kate Greenaway are on display.

“Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum” will be on view at The Frick Art Museum through Oct. 8. Featuring artists and paintings from an era when artists looked into the past for inspiration, the works of art can be appreciated for their mastery of detail and dreamlike portrayals of human figures.