How did Dante Gabriel Rossetti help found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?

Dante Gabriel Rossetti helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 alongside fellow Royal Academy students William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.12

The group was established as a reaction against the perceived artificiality and lack of imagination in the historical painting promoted by the Royal Academy. By banding together, these young artists sought to inject a new sense of moral seriousness and sincerity into their work. They drew inspiration from Italian art created before the time of Raphael, admiring the direct and uncomplicated way those artists depicted nature.1

As a founding member, Rossetti contributed to the group's mission of reviving the deep religious feeling and unadorned directness found in 15th-century Florentine and Sienese painting. While his own artistic style eventually diverged from the others due to his focus on arcane aesthetics rather than the precise replication of nature, his role as a founder was instrumental in launching this influential movement.1