The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed in 1848 by Rossetti, Millais and Hunt in an effort to defeat the formula-driven art fostered by the Royal Academy in London. The academics derived their formulas from the Renaissance works of Raphael and these artists were revolting from those formulae.

Though the Brotherhood ended within three years, the fostering of greater realism and a new, lighter treatment of subjects spread through the art world, and this included modern male nude art. Two marvelous examples of this work are to be found in the masterpieces of William Adolphe Bouguereau and John William Waterhouse.