7th October 2009. Walker art gallery tour.

Today i attended a tour where three paintings were explained. One of the largest pieces by Rosetti, has covered the theme of love before. Rosetti was 21 when he created this piece. It was finished in 1871 and sold to the Walker art gallery in 1881. In the painting he Falls asleep and dreams that the love of his life, Beatrice has died. Red poppy's on the floor, the red of the poppy's resembles love and the poppy's themselves resemble death. The artist paint's pictures and writes poems. Big, red, long hair was attractive in that time. Hair doesn't rot, only flesh does. Rosetti fell in love with another woman once Beatrice died, he constantly painted this woman. She was called Jane Morris. rosetti painted people with the face of Jane Morris. The man figure resembles love, he is the figure of love. Red is the colour of love, green is the colour of mourning. Pre-raphalite paintings usually have a frame which is usually gold around them. Rosetti designed his own frames, the frames often contain symbols. Rosetti's presentation for his work meant a lot to him. 1500 guineas was paid by the council for this painting. Rosetti wanted this painting to be exhibited in the autumn exhibition.

William Holman Hunt. Triumph of the innocents, purchased 1891. 1827-1910.
Shows the holy family traveling into Egypt. Children are in various stages of consciousness. Everything was painted by nature. The painting was painted in Palestine. Light beacon fires on the hills to communicate. Bubble just off centre in the painting. The bubble holds a picture of a staircase, maybe the staircase to heaven. Everything has been fulfilled in the new testament from the old testament. Looks like the virgin's face is uneven, as though it has been repaired.

John Everett Millais. Isabella 1829-1896. Isabella.
Millais was 19 when he painted this painting. Everything painted from life. Something odd about the perspective. Based on a poem. Lorenzo is in love with Isabella but they have to keep it secret. Flowers grow from their heads. Isabella's brothers wants her to marry a local man. They take Lorenzo into the forest and kill him. Isabella dreams he has been hurt, he comes to her in her dream and he takes her to the forest where he was buried. She goes to the grave and takes only his head. She puts his head in a pot of basil. Isabella die's of a broken heart. Crawling with symbolism. A hawk chews on a white feather after killing something. A brother looking through his blood red coloured wine while looking in the direction to looking at Lorenzo. The dog is a symbol of devotion. One of the brothers kick the dog. PRB means pre raphaelite brotherhood. Painted by a 19 year old genius. Shadow of a erect penis, supposed to be the shadow of the nutcracker the brother holds. The 19 year old is showing his sense of humour by creating this shadow. For 7 people to sit on one side of the table, the table would roughly have to be 14 foot long, but the painting shows it's not. The wall papered walls are apparently meant to be parallel with the frame. Distorted the spacial qualities of the room, the arch was narrowed to link Lorenzo and Isabella's heads.