Forgotten Women Pre-Raphaelites

It is very difficult to consider the women of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement—muses, models, and wives, as well as poets, painters, and craftswomen—independently from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood because these women are so much in the men's shadow, and worked alongside them in many cases. This edited collection addresses the absence of scholarly work on Pre-Raphaelite women by focusing on some of the most marginalized and obscure women associated with Pre-Raphaelitism. These women have been easily overlooked, or become lost in the undefined mass of “Pre-Raphaelite Sisters,” often reduced to a footnote or a brief biography. This book offers an alternative: a way of approaching these women as distinct from the “Brothers,” considering the intrinsic value of their contribution to art. Moreover, it engages in current debates about how these women might fit into the ostensibly male field of Pre-Raphaelitism, indicating ways in which these women formed their own networks and careers both in tandem with and independently of male artists.