Lady Trevelyan and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Wallington Hall was remote from the major centers of artistic activity in early 19th-century Britain. Yet Pauline Trevelyan single-handedly made her home the focus of High Victorian cultural life. The penniless but clever daughter of a clergyman, Pauline Jermyn married an older man whom she met through a shared passion for geology. Sir Walter Trevelyan was a philanthropist, teetotal, vegetarian, pacifist, and very rich. With his encouragement, she collected works of art and decorated Wallington Hall with a cycle of vast paintings. She was a patron of the arts who provided a fostering environment for many of the geniuses of her day. Among those she attracted into her orbit were Ruskin, Swinburne, the Brownings, the Rossettis, Carlyle, Millais, and numerous other members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. This is the story of Lady Trevelyan’s founding of an astounding artistic salon and the revolutionary arts movement it fostered.