In a word, Pre-Raphaelite, Pre-Raphaelites, Pre-Raphaelitism

This essay considers three key terms in the historiography of nineteenth-century British art, discussing their changing uses and meanings from their usage in the biographies of artists written from the 1880s onwards, through exhibitions, dealer galleries and sale rooms of the fin-de-siecle, and through the twentieth century. It provides an analysis of the 1984 Tate exhibition, The Pre-Raphaelites, as well as more recent displays and shows, to reflect on art history's attention to the individual artist's biographical trajectory and preoccupations with groups and movements which it is argued continue to repeat the nineteenth-century's fascination with the achievements of 'great men'.