The Pre-Raphaelite art movement began in England during the mid 19th Century. It is sometimes referred to as the The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The various artists that started and comprised this "brotherhood," such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais were disillusioned with the artistic expression and style of their time (1848), which they considered to be boring and unimaginative. A reaction, as it were to the Victorian Era and in their opinion, the stagy, artificial historic painting style of the Royal Academy.

These artists attempted to bring about what they felt was a new purity and sincerity to art and drew upon the Arthurian Legends, the Middle Ages, Chivalry, Courtly Love, the Bible, and classical (Greek and Roman) mythology as inspiration. They felt the styles of the artists before the High Renaissance, those existing before the painter, Raphael, were of a truer expression, hence their name: The Pre-Raphaelites.

Although the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood lasted for only a short time, less then ten years, it heavily influenced the decorative arts and literature and was revived again the 1880's through the 1920's, inspiring the works of later painters such as John William Waterhouse and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Sometimes Waterhouse, Burne-Johns and others usually thought of as Pre-Raphaelite Artists are also classified as belonging to the Classical or Romantic Movements.