"Nephew of the painter Arthur Hughes, model to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and studio assistant to Holman Hunt, E.R. Hughes lived and worked at the heart of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. The watercolours he exhibited in London just before the First World War – such as the fairy vision of Midsummer Eve (1908) – are among the most familiar and most often reproduced images in British art. Yet surprisingly Hughes himself has often been overlooked and his name is little known." — Birmingham Museum's archived introduction to their 2016 exhibition, Enchanted Dreams: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of E.R. Hughes
Biographical Material
Works
Bibliography
Christian, John. The Last Romantics. The Romantic Tradition in British Art. London: Lund Humphries, 1989.
Huish, Marcus Bourne. British Water-Colour Art. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1904.
Osborne, Victoria Jean. "A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite Circles: Edward Robert Hughes RWS (1851-1914)." M. Phil. thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009.
Enchanted Dreams: The Pre-Raphaelite Art of E.R. Hughes. Internet Archive (Wayback Machine). Web. 4 May 2026.
Engen, Rodney. "The Twilight of Edward Robert Hughes, RWS." Water-Colours and Drawings Magazine (Winter 1990): 34-37.
Huish, Marcus Bourne. British Watercolour Art. London: A. & C. Black, 1904.
Osborne, Victoria Jean. "A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite Circles: Edward Robert Hughes RWS (1851-1914)." M.Phil. thesis, University of Birmingham, 2009.
Created 21 November 2019
Last modified 4 May 2026