DGR's extraordinary
range of talents and interests, combined with his energy and enthusiasm,
made him the central figure in the formation of the group of writers
and artists who were to name themselves "The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood".
Hunt's express hostility to academy art gave the movement its
initial polemical and theoretical focus.
He was particularly inspired by the first volume of Ruskin's "Modern
Painters", and he introduced the others to Ruskin's ideas, which
proved so fruitful to so many in and associated with the PRB and
its aftermath. But it was DGR whose cultural vision and force
of character magnetized the group, just as it was Rossetti's work
which was to have the longest and most significant impact on poetry
and the visual arts.
