On an evening in September 1848, in the home of Millais’ parents at 83 Gower Street, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formally constituted.
It seemed appropriate that the Tate Gallery, which had been consistent in its policy of building up a representative collection of this school, should commemorate the centenary month by bringing together this group of acknowledged masterpieces.
The purpose of the exhibition was to illustrate the finest achievement of the Brotherhood and of those painters who came under its immediate influence. The later development, personally inspired by Rossetti, of which Burne-Jones became the central figure, was not represented.