ARTIST COLLECTIVES: PRE-RAPHAELITES TALK 2

With Martin Beek

Sat 4 Oct 2025, 11am–12pm

At the Museum and Online

This event takes place in-person at the Museum, and online via Zoom.

Tickets are £8 each. Booking is essential. Book below

With Martin Beek, artist and art historian

The second of two talks by Martin Beek which focus on Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces in the Ashmolean's collection and the city of Oxford in the Brotherhood’s development and patronage.

The highly original depiction of the natural world and ‘truth to nature,’ single out the Pre-Raphaelites and their widening circle from other Victorian artists.

Millais' portrait of John Ruskin in front of a stream, holding his hat, 1853-1854, in oil on canvas

John Ruskin, Sir John Everett Millais, oil on canvas, 1853-1854, oil on canvas © Ashmolean Museum

Gentle Spring, Frederic Sandys, 1865, oil on canvas © Ashmolean Museum

As the group developed each of its principal protagonists developed in different and exiting ways. Holman Hunt seeking new and truthful expression in his biblical paintings by travelling to Palestine in 1854. Rossetti developed his original and poetic watercolours and Millais intensely beautiful paintings of the later 1850s are significant.

The first talk in this series takes place on 27 Sep: