Thomas Woolner, R.A., remains most noteworthy as one of the seven founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. In his own lifetime he was far better known as a sculptor than as a poet, but in the true Pre-Raphaelite spirit he sought to be the universal artist in pursuing both the visual and the verbal arts.

Thomas Woolner, son of Thomas and Rebecca Leeks Woolner, was born at Hadleigh in Suffolk. His early life was notable for his great love and close observation of nature and for his fastidiousness as a promising scholar--two traits that would characterize his artistic career in later life. His education began near Ipswich and was continued after age ten at boarding school in Brixton until the family moved to London. Though his father was not sympathetic to his son's artistic ambitions, Woolner's stepmother paid for him to begin studying painting with Henry...