The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (P.R.B.) was a 19th-century English art movement founded in 1848 by Holman Hunt, Millais, Rosetti and others.
Such painters shared the ideal of emulating or recreating works akin to Italian paintings produced before mature works of the the 16th-century artist Raphael. In fact, the artists knew little of Italian art of this period and developed an innovative type of extremely detailed technique, often applied to Biblical or literary subjects.
The characteristics which their pictures share include a meticulous approach, brilliant colours worked into a wet white ground, complex symbolism, and the study of subjects outside the studio.
The Pre-Raphaelites enjoyed patronage and critical acclaim from writers such as Ruskin.