Romeo & Juliet by (1870) Ford Madox-Brown (1821-1893). Courtesy of Delaware Art Museum, USA.

24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer Joel Turner took in this selection of Pre-Raphaelite treats in Nottingham.

An enchanting new exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art is on show at Nottingham Castle until September 4 2005.

The exhibition, entitled Waking Dreams, showcases one of the most significant collections of work from the period, from outside the UK. The castle is the only European venue for this American collection, which normally resides at the Delaware Art Museum. Exhibits include paintings, furniture, ceramics and jewellery.

Cupid’s Hunting Fields by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898). Courtesy of Delaware Art Museum, USA.

The Pre-Raphaelite movement began in 1848 when a group of seven writers and artists gathered, seeking to move away from the rigid artistic conventions of the Royal Academy and assume their own aesthetic approach.

Their name is taken from their desire to revisit a level of realism that existed before Italian Renaissance painter Raphael and to paint directly from nature. The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood consisted of William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and James Collins; sculptor Thomas Woolner; and writers William Michael Rossetti (brother of Dante Gabriel) and Frederick George Stephens.

Their work took themes from mythology, history, Arthurian legends, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and biblical stories. They also turned to English Romantic poets, such as Byron and Keats, for narrative, symbolism and perhaps most importantly sentiment. The brotherhood also shared a concern for social issues of the period and particularly the tension between the country and the newly industrialised towns.

A larger circle of artists and writers was soon formed and aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism under the guidance of Rossetti would later inform the Arts and Crafts movement, modern functional design and the Aesthetes and Decadents.

Lady Lilith, 1868 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Courtesy of Delaware Art Museum, USA.

This collection on show was founded by American textile owner Samuel Bancroft Jr who was born into a Quaker family with strong British connections. On seeing a Pre-Raphaelite image for the first time in 1880 he described himself as “shocked with delight.”

He amassed around 130 works before his death and these are displayed for the first time in the UK at the exhibition.

It spans the two periods of the movement and most of the Victorian era, moving from Rossetti’s early work in 1848 to the late paintings by Edward Burne-Jones before his death in 1898.

As well as many famous pieces from the movement, such as Rossetti’s Lady Lilith (1868) and the detailed Romeo and Juliet (1870) by Ford Madox Brown, there are other lesser known works that explore different aspects of the group’s aesthetic.

The Arming of a Knight by William Morris (1834-1898) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). Courtesy of Delaware Art Museum, USA.

The Green Butterfly (1879-1881) by Albert Moore depicts a delicate vision of a woman in a flowing green dress, a butterfly of the same colour dancing by her shoulder.

While the vivid green mirrors the jewel-like colours used in early Italian painting, the exotic essence of the picture highlights another pre-occcupation of the movement — study of the Orient.

A sense of the Orient also belies Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl — a painstakingly detailed etching by Frederick Sandy for Cornhill Magazine, one in a series of etchings he produced for various publications.

The infancy of the Arts and Crafts movement is evident in the two Morris-Rossetti chairs on display. Arts and Crafts jewellery, ceramics and metal work also include Winifred Sandys’ delicate ivory miniatures of The Five Senses.

Joel Turner is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the East Midlands region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.