Munsey's Magazine, September 1893

Munsey's Magazine (September 1893) "Some Idealistic Painters," by Margaret Field, surveys nineteenth-century English artistic movements. The article traces the Pre-Raphaelite school's origins in 1849, when Holman Hunt, J.E. Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti rejected the dominant academic painting tradition. Field emphasizes Rossetti's singular genius—his mystical, intensely colorful works drew from Italian heritage and English morality. She details specific paintings: "Mary's Girlhood," "The Annunciation" ("the white picture"), "Sancta Lilias," and "The Vision of Dante on the Day of Beatrice's Death." The article then examines G.F. Watts's idealistic approach, which uses human forms to express abstract ideas rather than narrative detail. Field analyzes several Watts allegorical works: "Love and Death" (contrasting rosy Cupid with a white-shrouded Death figure), "Time, Death and Judgment," "Orpheus and Eurydice," and "Paolo and Francesca di Rimini" (depicting their eternal torment as floating shades). The essay concludes discussing mythological subjects as vehicles for timeless human passions.