Pre-Raphaelitism, Ruskinism, and French Symbolism

Abstract

Parisians first saw English Pre-Raphaelite art at the Universal Exposition of 1855, but their initial excitement on cooled and the reputation of the movement fell into decline; the popularity of Pre-Raphaelitism in France was not solidly established until 1884, when, in his novel Rebours, J. K. Huysmans linked the British movement with the native Decadent-Symbolist movement which suddenly was growing extremely fashionable. The Symbolists headed a rebellion against naturalism, and we might think that when, in 1888, a Symbolist movement in painting was arising, rebelling against the “naturalistic” art form of Impressionism, the French painters would have turned to the British Pre-Raphaelites in same way. Such expectations, however, are not immediately satisfied, since the French painters themselves do not seem to have recognized any debt to the English. Charles Chasse says in his study of the Nabis: “Je ne m'attarderai pourtant pas a disserter sur ce preraphaelisme parce que, en realite, nos Nabis ont ete, ...