WMR surveys a PRB collection

the Leathart Pre-Raphaelite collection.

Rossetti, William M. "A Pre-Raphaelite Collection." Art Journal (May 1896): 131. Web. 21 September 2011.

Rossetti surveys the collection of recently deceased art collector James Leathart, who had amassed one of the largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite art that remained at the time in one location.

Rossetti gives quantitative assessments of the various art pieces, commenting on the artists from his firsthand viewpoint. The tone is consistently advocative of the pre-Raphaelite movement and the recurring theme is of vindication of the artists and the movement after having ultimately proven it's worth and benefit to British art.

Rossetti's considers the many paintings in chronological order and notes the popular and critical response to Pre-Raphaelitism in effect at the time of each work's origin. Early in the movement, the reception of the works and the artists is conflicted, sometimes hostile. But toward the end of the century, both the influence of the movement and the public and critical reception are mostly positive and constructive according to Rossetti. But as in many of Rossetti's early critical essays, he finds the "amateur art collectors" to be uninformed and not fully appreciative of the Pre-Raphaelite movement's contribution to British art.

descriptive, informative, critical, and analytical

"pre-Raphaelite sympathies", "surprisingly forceful cartoon"

aesthetic value, recognition among artists, confirmation of Pre-Raphaelite criteria

Mr. James Leathart, Sir John Everett Millais, Holman Hunt, Madox-Brown, Dante Rossetti, Plint, John Miller, William Graham, Leyland, W.A. Turner, Craven, Mrs. Combe, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Arthur Hughes, Mr. Inghbold, Lord Leighton, Mr. Albert Moore, G.T. Chapman, Sir J. Noel Patton, Simeon Solomon

definitive, evaluative

descriptive, validating, confirmatory, instructive, historical narrative