The Traveller

Summary

Night scene outside an inn, of traveller on horseback leaving the inn, urging his horse round the bend in the road, to left of picture, away from the viewer. In the doorway of the inn, on the right, a group of two women, one holding a baby, and a small boy see him off, a black dog runs after the rider. The woman holding the baby is wearing a red and white striped dress and a white head-dress. Her companion wears a dark dress with a pink shawl, and leans on the other. The boy stands with his hands in his pockets, dressed in short trousers, a loose shirt, and clogs. A warm glow from inside the inn silhouettes the guests sitting inside, through a square window with shutters. A glass panel above the doorway is inscribed 'NOURRITURE POUR / HOMME & BETE' illustrated with a bottle and a glass. Another house is visible behind the inn. Further along the cobbled street on which the traveller is departing, is a wayside shrine of Christ on the cross, next to a shining lamp.

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Gallery text panel The Pre-Raphaelites in their Time Britain's first and best-known radical art movement emerged from within the Royal Academy in 1848. Its original members were rebellious art students who were disillusioned with contemporary practice. They looked back to Italian art before Raphael, seeing the pre-1500 period as one of great sincerity. They called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In an age of rapid industrial and urban expansion, Pre-Raphaelite artists like Rossetti, Hunt and Millais, and pioneering design reformers such as William Morris, sought a return to pre-industrial values of art and design in truth to nature and materials, and good workmanship. In addition, the arts of the Middle Ages and Middle East were important sources of stylistic inspiration. The Bible, literature and contemporary life were preferred over subjects derived from classical mythology. The Brotherhood also rejected contrived studio lighting and took canvases outside to paint directly from nature. Although attempting to convey exactly what they saw, they created a heightened reality of dream-like intensity with minute details and bright, dazzling colours. Their art was a new kind of history painting for a new age.