The Germ (periodical)

The Germ, thoughts towards nature in art and literature (1850) was a periodical established by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to disseminate their ideas.

Madox Brown created a two-page illustration of the King Lear and his daughters for the third issue, accompanying his article on the mechanics of a history painting.

[5] It also printed contributions of verse and essays on art and literature by associates of the Brotherhood including Ford Madox Brown and Coventry Patmore, as well as occasional book reviews.

In the hope of improving the magazine's poor sales, it was renamed with the less ambiguous title Art and Poetry, being Thoughts towards Nature, conducted principally by Artists for its final two issues.

A special limited edition (only 450 copies) of all four volumes of The Germ was published in 1898 on Van Gelder handmade paper, by Thomas B. Mosher, Portland, Maine, USA.

Illustration by Holman Hunt to Thomas Woolner 's poem "My Beautiful Lady", published in The Germ , 1850