Frederic George Stephens (1828 - 1907)
The ‘Non-Artistic’ Pre-Raphaelite

Despite his name being less well-known than the other Brothers, I think that Stephens deserves both our thanks and our attention.

Born Septimus Stephens (great name) in 1828, Frederic George Stephens joined the Royal Academy in 1844 where he hooked up with Millais and Hunt and became one of the original “Secret Seven” members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Though he began as an artist in the group, he became so disappointed by his own artistic talent that he gave up painting and claimed to have destroyed all of his works. Thankfully, three paintings have known to survive (two of which are shown on the second row above.).

He then took up art criticism and modeled for the other Brothers in pictures including John Everett Millais’ Ferdinand Lured by Ariel and Ford Madox Brown’s Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet (shown above.).

So why isn’t Stephens better known? He was a loud proponent for the Brotherhood, writing for important art journals such as Athenaeum, The Art Journal and Portfolio. He wrote books on art history and monographs on contemporary artists such as Mulready and Landseer, together with large quantities of the Catalogue of Prints and Drawings for the British Museum where he was Keeper of Prints and Drawings, and when Rossetti died, Stephens co-wrote his obituary. So where did it all go wrong? Part of the blame can be laid on a spat that turned into a feud between Holman Hunt and Stephens. One of Hunt’s paintings went missing under Stephen’s watch, and when it arrived it was damaged. Add to this that Stephens then went on to give the same painting a bad review and the feud began. Hunt proceeded to attack Stephens in his Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1914), after Stephen’s death. I’ve always thought it’s safest to perform character assination when the victim isn’t able to respond. Anyway, this coupled with Stephen’s disconnection from art criticism later in life (he didn’t like Impressionism) shrank his importance from a Brother to A. N. Other, and in the course of time he became a footnote in the history of Pre-Raphaelitism. However, you and I know that art history is more than just pretty pictures, it’s about dynamics, pressure and the work of those behind the scenes. The genius of Fred Stephens may not have been painting, but the appreciation of others’ ability to do what he could not. References: x x x