Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following images!!
“The Black Brunswicker” (1860) by John Everett Millais
“Isabella and the Pot of Basil” (1868) by William Holman Hunt
“Found” (1865–1869, unfinished) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
One of my more recent obsessions is with the artists know as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, it’s most famous members being John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Like many of my obsessions, the Pre-Raphaelites have been floating around the periphery of my awareness for some time, perhaps years. My interest was peaked only recently (this spring) by the Legion of Honor‘s stunning exhibit “The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde 1860 – 1900,” featuring works by not only the Pre-Raphaelites but also their contemporaries, students, and successors (including William Morris, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, etc.). This exhibit picked up the threads of some other interests of mine, such as Charles Dickens’s companion and fellow writer Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone, The Woman in White, etc.). The exhibit also inspired me to dig deeper into the lives of these eccentric Victorian “Renaissance” men!
An easy way to learn more about the Pre-Raphaelites is through the BBC six-part series Desperate Romantics (2009), featuring a cast of lovely men and women (Aidan Turner, Rafe Spall, and Amy Manson to name a few) and gorgeous period costumes. While at times exuding a contemporary (as in 21st century) feel in the vein of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), the series is very painstakingly researched yet thoroughly enjoyable to watch. It’s a series I’m just itching to re-watch and show to all my friends.
Aidan Turner as Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Another wonderful way to enjoy the Pre-Raphaelites is through the online comic Pre-Raphernalia: The Pre-Raph Sketchbook Cartoons of Raine Szramski (preraphernalia.blogspot.com). This series is another painstakingly researched yet thoroughly enjoyable journey into the bizarre history of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with plenty of cameos by Rossetti’s pet wombat named “Top.”
My most recent encounter with the Pre-Raphaelites is surprisingly through the British footwear brand Dr. Martens. Dr. Martens has teamed up with Liberty of London to create shoes and purses featuring William Morris’s celebrated “Strawberry Thief” textile design. My birthday’s coming up, so I’m hoping to get my paws on one of these timeless purses!
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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas
8 comments | tags: 1860, 1865, 1868, 1869, 1900, 2009, 21st Century, Aidan Turner, Amy Manson, Artist, Aubrey Beardsley, Awareness, BBC, Beardsley, Birthday, Bizarre, Brainstorming, Brand, British, Buy, Cameo, Celebrated, Charles Dickens, Comic book, Comics, Contemporaries, Contemporary, Costumes, Creativity, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Design, Desperate Romantics, Dr. Martens, Drama, DVD, Eccentric, England, Enjoyable, Exhibit, Exhibition, Famous, Footwear, Found, Friend, Gorgeous, Graphic Novel, History, Hunt, Interest, Interesting, Isabella and the Pot of Basil, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, John Everett Millais, Legion of Honor, Liberty, Liberty of London, London, Lovely, Maniac, Marie Antoinette, Members, Millais, Morris, Musuem, Novel, Novelist, Obsession, Online Comic, Oscar Wilde, Painstaking, Painting, Paws, Period, Period Drama, Pet, Poetry, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Pre-Raphaelites, Pre-Raphernalia, Purses, Rafe Spall, Raine Szramski, Re-Watch, Renaissance Man, Research, Rossetti, Series, Shoes, Sofia Coppola, Strawberry Thief, Students, Stunning, Successors, Textile, The Black Brunswicker, The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, The Moonstone, The Woman in White, Timeless, Top, Victorian, Victorian Era, Victorian Period, Whistler, Wilde, Wilkie Collins, William Holman Hunt, William Morris, Wombat, Writer | posted in Brainstorming, Research
This list was originally intended for web series ideas, but has gotten off track a bit. So it’s more of just a brainstorming list intended for various mediums.
(This is just a rough list of ideas for my personal use. In no particular order!)
- My short story entitled “Inside the Display Case,” about a Siberian pit viper named Peter.
- Crime/mystery/thriller genre: perhaps a modern version of “Bluebeard” or “How the Devil Married Three Sisters“…?
- Supernatural/Vampire/Werewolf: not my favorite topic in the universe, but I would like a chance to completely reinvent it.
- Perhaps a quirky series with a cynical heroine like Daria or Ghost World…?
- “The Chronic Argonauts” (1888), Tono-Bungay (1909), etc. by H. G. Wells.
- “The Modern Prometheus,” more widely known as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
- The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe and/or The Poe Toaster.
- San Francisco history [Found SF].
- Cliff House and the Sutro Baths.
- Oscar Wilde in San Francisco.
- A story about a bored widow…?
- Tchaikovsky’s Voice: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Julius Block, and Thomas Edison.
- “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me.” — “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
- Exquisite corpse and other parlour games [Victorian Parlour Games]: Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (百物語怪談会), Wink Murder (Vampire), Snap-dragon, etc.
- Kaidan (怪談) [Hyakumonogatari]: Yotsuya Kaidan, Botan Dōrō, etc.
- The Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, London.
- The Devil’s Trill Sonata by Giuseppe Tartini.
- “Victorian Funeral Customs and Superstitions”
- The ancient Greek goddess Melinoe.
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
- The Plague Doctor and his costume.
- 「…夢が現実の領域（りょういき）にまで溢れ出し、夢の氾濫（はんらん）が起ってしまったのだと。」” ‘…[My dream-world has] spilled over into reality. They’re a flood that’s sweeping me away.’ ” Quote from “Spring Snow” by Yukio Mishima.
- The Demon, an opera by Russian composer Anton Rubinstein.
- The works of Mikhail Lermontov, including Demon and “Death of the Poet.”
- “The Earl of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to travel, seven years. On his return the Queen welcomed him home and said, ‘My Lord, I had forgot the Fart’” –Aubrey’s Brief Lives.
- “A Visit to the Haunted Chamber,” painting by William Frederick Yeames.
- …?
To be continued…
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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.
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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas
Leave a comment | tags: A Visit to the Haunted Chamber, Alexander Pushkin, Ancient Greece, Anton Rubinstein, Artistic, Aubrey's Brief Lives, Beelzebub, Bluebeard, Bohemian Rhapsody, Borded, Botan Doro, Brainstorming, Cliff House, Costume, Creativity, Crime, Customs, Cynical, Daria, Death, Death of the Poet, Demon, Devils, Earl of Oxford, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward de Vere, Exquisite Corpse, Fairy Tales, Fart, Film, Frankenstein, Funeral, Genre, Ghost World, Giuseppe Tartini, Goddess, H. G. Wells, Haru no Yuki, Haunted, Heroine, History, How the Devil Married Three Sisters, Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, Ideas, Inside the Display Case, Japanese Village in Knightsbridge, Kaidan, List, Literature, Mary Shelley, Mediums, Melinoe, Middle Ages, Mikhail Lermontov, Modern, Mysterious, Mystery, Myth, Oscar Wilde, Parlour Games, Peter, Pied Piper, Queen, Queen Elizabeth, Quirky, Reading, Reinvent, Research, Russia, San Francisco, Screenplay, Screenwriter, Sea of Fertility, Series, Short Story, Siberian pit viper, Snake, Snap-dragon, Spring Snow, Story, Supernatural, Superstitions, Sutro Baths, Tchaikovsky, The Chronic Argonauts, The Demon, The Devil's Trill Sonata, The Modern Prometheus, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Plague Doctor, The Poe Toaster, Thomas Edison, Thriller, Tono-Bungay, Topic, Travel, Universe, Vampire, Various, Version, Victorian, Visual, Voice, Web Series, Werewolf, Widow, William Frederick Yeames, Wink Murder, Writing, Yotsuya Kaidan, Yukio Mishima | posted in Brainstorming, Screenplays
