Painter, illustrator, poet and translator who co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. They sought to revitalise art by emphasising the detailed observation of the natural world in a spirit of quasi-religious devotion to truth. This religious approach was influenced by the spiritual qualities of medieval art, in opposition to the alleged rationalism of the Renaissance embodied by Raphael. He was later the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His works was characterised by its sensuality and medieval revivalism.