Female Representation in the Centre of Pre-Raphaelites. Painting and Victorian Photography

The present study explores the female representation in Pre-Raphaelite painting and Vic-torian photography from 1850 to 1870. The paper discusses relationship between the two different mediums and how they dealt with female representation, as well as social and gender problems regarding this interpretation. The newly developed discourses on pho-tography created new visual demands for painters, which not only consisted of depicting “truth to nature”; but also combined symbolic and imitative connotations in the paintings and later in photography, (Smith, 1992, 38). “The generation of photographers and Pre-Raphaelite painters working in 1850-60 vitally transformed the course of their media by simultaneously shaping the aesthetics of realism and positioning it at the centre of nine-teenth-century visual culture.” (Waggoner, 2010, 14).
The research – developed thematically and chronologically – discusses the presented works' historical, theoretical, and social tenets. The introduction presents the first discus-sion of general cultural context, the socio-cultural situation, the Victorian construct of womanhood, photography, and Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. First chapter discusses the female representation in painting and photography. The second chapter, presents the influence of painting on photography. The third chapter, discusses the importance and use of photography for painting. The work examines the Pre-Raphaelite extension far beyond the initial concept of the original brotherhood to their desire to explore the inter-sections between the contemporary society and moral world.