“Punch’s First Poke at the Pre-Raphaelites”
Thomas J. Tobin
With their admiration for medieval subjects and insistence on minute fidelity to nature, The Pre-Raphaelites were easy targets for the pundits of the mid-nineteenth century.  The height of fame was to merit a mention in Punch, whose editors and artists were keen critics of the artistic and political scenes in England.  Although the Pre-Raphaelite movement received much notice and critical scorn almost from the exhibition of their first works in 1849, it wasn’t until 1852 that Punch deigned to lampoon the movement.  Although it is difficult to determine the authorship of the following “letter to the editor,” the accompanying cartoon was almost certainly drawn by Charles Keene.

“Preparing for the Worst.”  Punch, or the London Charivari 17 Apr. 1852: 169.

PREPARING FOR THE WORST
Cimabue Cottage, Camden Town
Mr. Punch,
	Knowing how you truly appreciate ‘High Art,’ I want your candid opinion of the accompanying Sketch.  Do you consider it ‘the thing’ for the Public and for Posterity?  My husband used to see things as other people do--but he has lately become a Pre-Raphaelite.  He expects to make quite a hit next year, with some old subjects--in a new dress.  He gilds the skies, counts the blades of grass and the pebbles--shaves the shepherd boys’ heads, and adds a yard to their smocks, clips the trees, and dams the water.  When dry enough, they are to be framed ‘selon les règles [according to the rules],’ and named ‘Legends.’
	He is now diligently copying a Noah’s Ark, and making studies from the contents, for his Great Work of next year, 1853!  He has had in a barrow-full of stones, and is watching a pot of Couch-grass with extreme anxiety.
	I was sadly afraid when he chose the subject, that we should have been over-run with all sorts of Birds and Beasts, walking up and down the stairs, two and two, all day; but luckily he prefers the form and spirit of the Nürnberg toys.
	Last week he copied a fine cabbage, on both sides, to have it correct.  The art certainly has its peculiar difficulties; it took 25 fresh Herrings to make a pair, in his ‘Sea of Galilee,’ which he studied, all from nature, off the Coast of Cork.  He was two months about them, and, you know, Mr. Punch, they are a fish that don’t keep.  But he has only Landscape difficulties to contend against, as he can always find a Figure to suit in the Missals at the British Museum, already coloured--which saves a world of trouble.  My husband is draining the Tea-pot, Mr. Punch!--so I must stop.
						Always yours with esteem,
							Mary Biles.
P.S.--The accompanying is his last!

Ye Legende of Saint Tabbacca.

	The author of this piece points to a number of Pre-Raphaelite practices that ran counter to the unwritten “rules” of the Royal Academy of Art.  Such paintings as William Holman Hunt’s Hireling Shepherd were composed by combining elements from several “real scenes” that were painted in different places at different times (the figures were painted in the artist’s studio, for example).  The Punch author lampoons this tendency to make nature “fit” the ideal of the painter, claiming that he is watching grass grow at home, waiting for the “perfect” time to paint it.  Further, the Pre-Raphaelites admired the crisp detail in paintings done during the medieval period, and chose many of their subjects from Scripture, as medieval artists often did.  Thus, the husband in this letter is studying a toy Noah’s Ark and toy pairs of animals, which can be seen in the cartoon at the feet of “Saint Tabbacca.”  Ironically, John Everett Millais would later use a toy Noah’s Ark in his painting Peace Concluded in 1856, using the toy animals to represent the combatants in the Crimean War.  Last, the letter-writer mentions that her husband finds many of his figures not from life, but from medieval drawings in the British Museum; indeed, the Pre-Raphaelites often borrowed period clothing, armor, and accessories from museums and wealthy collectors, as can be seen in Millais’s 1857 painting Sir Isumbras at the Ford.
	Thus, we can see that although Punch lampooned the Pre-Raphaelites for their practices, the criticism we find in this short “letter” rings true at its core.  Punch would go on to champion the Pre-Raphaelites in later years, and this article marks the beginning of a long-running relationship of good-natured fun between the magazine and the Pre-Raphaelite movement.