ARTHURIAN ART

Arthur Hughes (1830-1915)

   Arthur Hughes was born in London on 27 January, 1830. He studied under Alfred Stevens at the Somerset House School of Design, and in 1847, at the Royal Academy. In 1850, he read a copy of The Germ, the short-lived journal of the Pre-Raphaelites, and was converted to their philosophy. He collaborated on the painting at the Oxford Union with Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
   Hughes produced his best art in the decade of the 1850s.  Some of his best works are a series of pictures of lovers in nature scenes featuring clinging ivy on old trees.
   He was an extremely sensitive and private man. He withdrew from the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's sessions in 1858 and moved with his family to the outskirts of London. But he continued to be one of their strongest adherents.
   As well as being a painter, Hughes was one of the more successful Pre-Raphaelite illustrators, drawing many pictures for the illustrated magazines and books of the 1860s and onwards. In 1872, he worked with Rossetti's sister, Christina Rossetti, illustrating her book of children's verse, Sing Song.
   Hughes continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1903. He was awarded a Civil List pension in 1912 and died in Kew Green on 12 December 1915.
   His Sir Galahad hangs in Manchester.

Sir Galahad
Gareth Overthrows the Red Knight
Knight of the Sun
La Belle Dame sans Merci
The Lady of Shalott
Sir Galahad (2)