Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain – in pictures

Astarte Syriaca (1877) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who used his mistress, Jane Morris, as his model
Photograph: © Manchester City Galleries

Staff prepare Tate Britain's exhibition The Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde, which features 180 works Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer

Ford Madox Brown painted The Pretty Baa-Lambs (1851-59) 'en plein air' to best capture the sunlight falling on his subjects Photograph: Courtesy Birmingham Museums

Curator Alison Smith oversees preparations for The Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer

Lady Lilith (1866-68) by Rossetti. The model was Fanny Cornforth, who worked as the artist's housekeeper Photograph: © Delaware Art Museum

Merchandising for the show includes a postcard of The Beloved by Rossetti and beads resting on green material inspired by the bride's kimono dress Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer

Laus Veneris (1873-78) by Edward Burne-Jones, in which the queen reclines as a group of knights rides by outside Photograph: © Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle

Geoff Hoskings (left), in charge of the art handlers, oversees the arrival of Rossetti's sensual Monna Vanna Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer

In The Last of England (1852-55), by Ford Madox Brown, a young couple and their baby head for a new life Photograph: Courtesy Birmingham Museums

Restorer Natasha Walker checks over Chatterton, by Alfred Wallace, in preparation for the exhibition Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer

The Lady of Shalott (1886-1905) by William Holman Hunt Photograph: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Ophelia by John Everett Millais, one of the best-known pre-Raphaelite paintings, is moved into place at Tate Britain Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer

In The Awakening Conscience (1853), by William Holman Hunt, the man's mistress has a revelation as she stares into the garden (reflected in the mirror behind them) Photograph: © Tate

A handler moves into position Millais' controversial Christ in the House of His Parents (1849-50) Photograph: Sophia Evans/Observer