The second half of the 19th century has been called the positivist age and one of the most fascinating periods in our history. It has been an age of faith in the positive consequences of what can be achieved through the close observation of the natural and human realms.

The spirit of 19th century England could be personified through Queen Victoria and it's known as the Victorian era. It is covering the eclectic period of 64-year reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901.  When most people think of the Victorian era, high fashion, gilded age, rich with elegance, splendor, and romance, strict etiquette, and plush or eclectic decorating styles come to mind - but it was so much more than that. Victorian era covers Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Victorian art was shown in the full range of artistic developments, from the development of photography to the application of new technologies in architecture. In the midst of these artistic movements, painters Dante Rossetti and William Holman Hunt formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. The avant-garde artists banded together with the common vision of recapturing the style of painting that preceded Raphael, famed artist of the Italian Renaissance.

La prima metà del XIX secolo fu dominata, sia in letteratura sia in pittura, dallo spirito del romanticismo che concedeva nuova libertà all’immaginazione e conferiva un ruolo più drammatico alla natura nei suoi molteplici aspetti.

L’arte dell’epoca vittoriana fu caratterizzata da una forte istanza libertaria e antiaccademica, interpretata dai pittori della confraternita preraffaellita, fondata a Londra nel 1848. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais e Ford Madox Brown, traendo le loro tematiche da Shakespeare, dalle leggende arturiane e dalla Bibbia, le interpretarono con uno stile ispirato al primo Rinascimento, precedente l’opera di Raffaello, mirando così al recupero di uno stile puro e aderente alla natura.