Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...
and
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
. Rossetti inspired the next generation of artists and writers,
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...
in particular. His work also influenced the European
Symbolists and was a major precursor of the
Aesthetic movement.
Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. His early poetry was influenced by
John Keats and
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence, ''The House of Life''. Poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossetti's work. He frequently wrote
sonnets to accompany his pictures, spanning from ''
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin'' (1849) and ''Astarte Syriaca'' (1877), while also creating art to illustrate poems such as ''
Goblin Market
''Goblin Market'' (composed in April 1859 and published in 1862) is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. The poem tells the story of Laura and Lizzie who are tempted with fruit by goblin merchants. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claim ...
'' by the celebrated poet
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including " Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Bri ...
, his sister.
Rossetti's personal life was closely linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses
Elizabeth Siddal
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862), better known as Elizabeth Siddal, was an English artist, poet, and artists' model. Significant collections of her artworks can be found at Wightwick Manor and the Ashmolean. Sidd ...
(whom he married),
Fanny Cornforth and
Jane Morris
Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to her husband Willi ...
.
Early life
The son of émigré Italian scholar
Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and his wife
Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti was born in London, on 12 May 1828. His family and friends called him Gabriel, but in publications he put the name
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
first in honour of
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
. He was the brother of poet
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including " Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Bri ...
, critic
William Michael Rossetti
William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic.
Early life
Born in London, Rossetti was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Rossetti ''née'' Polidor ...
, and author
Maria Francesca Rossetti
Maria Francesca Rossetti (17 February 1827 – 24 November 1876) was a London-born English author and nun. She was the sister of artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Michael Rossetti, and of Christina Georgina Rossetti, who dedicated her 1 ...
. His father was a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
, at least prior to his marriage, and his mother was an
Anglican; ostensibly Gabriel was baptised as and was a practising
Anglican.
John William Polidori, who had died seven years before his birth, was Rossetti's maternal uncle. During his childhood, Rossetti was home educated and later attended
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...
, and often read the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
, along with the works of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
,
Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
,
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
, and
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
.
The youthful Rossetti is described as "self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic"
[Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 19.] but also "ardent, poetic and feckless". Like all his siblings, he aspired to be a poet and attended
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...
, in its original location near the
Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
in London. He also wished to be a painter, having shown a great interest in
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
Italian art
Since ancient times, Greeks, Etruscans and Celts have inhabited the south, centre and north of the Italian peninsula respectively. The very numerous rock drawings in Valcamonica are as old as 8,000 BC, and there are rich remains of Etruscan art ...
. He studied at
Henry Sass' Drawing Academy from 1841 to 1845, when he enrolled in the Antique School of the
Royal Academy, which he left in 1848. After leaving the Royal Academy, Rossetti studied under
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...
, with whom he retained a close relationship throughout his life.
Following the exhibition of
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...
's painting ''The Eve of St. Agnes'', Rossetti sought out Hunt's friendship. The painting illustrated a poem by
John Keats. Rossetti's own poem, "
The Blessed Damozel
"The Blessed Damozel" is perhaps the best known poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as the title of his painting (and its replica) illustrating the subject. The poem was first published in 1850 in the Pre-Raphaelite journal '' The Germ''. Ro ...
", was an imitation of Keats, and he believed Hunt might share his artistic and literary ideals. Together they developed the philosophy of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which they founded along with
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
.
The group's intention was to reform English art by rejecting what they considered to be the mechanistic approach first adopted by the
Mannerist
Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...
artists who succeeded
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...
and
Michelangelo and the formal training regime introduced by Sir
Joshua Reynolds. Their approach was to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of
Quattrocento
The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...
Italian and Flemish art. The eminent critic
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
wrote:
For the first issue of the brotherhood's magazine, ''The Germ'', published early in 1850, Rossetti contributed a poem, "The Blessed Damozel", and a story about a fictional early Italian artist inspired by a vision of a woman who bids him combine the human and the divine in his art. Rossetti was always more interested in the medieval than in the modern side of the movement, working on translations of
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
and other medieval Italian poets, and adopting the stylistic characteristics of the early Italians.
Career
Beginnings
Rossetti's first major paintings in oil display the realist qualities of the early Pre-Raphaelite movement. His ''
Girlhood of Mary Virgin'' (1849) and ''
Ecce Ancilla Domini'' (1850) portray Mary as a teenage girl.
William Bell Scott
William Bell Scott (1811–1890) was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vivid picture of life in the ...
saw ''Girlhood'' in progress in Hunt's studio and remarked on young Rossetti's technique:
Stung by criticism of his second major painting, ''Ecce Ancilla Domini'', exhibited in 1850, and the "increasingly hysterical critical reaction that greeted Pre-Raphaelitism" that year, Rossetti turned to watercolours, which could be sold privately. Although his work subsequently won support from John Ruskin, Rossetti only rarely exhibited thereafter.
Dante and Medievalism
In 1850, Rossetti met
Elizabeth Siddal
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862), better known as Elizabeth Siddal, was an English artist, poet, and artists' model. Significant collections of her artworks can be found at Wightwick Manor and the Ashmolean. Sidd ...
, an important model for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Over the next decade, she became his muse, his pupil, and his passion. They were married in 1860.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 33.] Rossetti's incomplete picture ''
Found'', begun in 1853 and unfinished at his death, was his only major modern-life subject. It depicted a prostitute, lifted from the street by a country drover who recognises his old sweetheart. However, Rossetti increasingly preferred symbolic and mythological images to realistic ones.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), pp. 19, 24–25.]
For many years, Rossetti worked on English translations of Italian poetry including
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
's ''
La Vita Nuova
''La Vita Nuova'' (; Italian for "The New Life") or ''Vita Nova'' (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and ve ...
'' (published as ''The Early Italian Poets'' in 1861). These and
Sir Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'Ar ...
's ''
Le Morte d'Arthur'' inspired his art of the 1850s. He created a method of painting in watercolours, using thick pigments mixed with gum to give rich effects similar to medieval
illuminations
Illuminations may refer to:
Shows and festivals
* IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, a nightly fireworks show currently at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort
*'' IllumiNations'', original nightly firework show at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resor ...
. He also developed a novel drawing technique in pen-and-ink. His first published illustration was "The Maids of Elfen-Mere" (1855), for a poem by his friend
William Allingham
William Allingham (19 March 1824 – 18 November 1889) was an Irish poet, diarist and editor. He wrote several volumes of lyric verse, and his poem "The Faeries" was much anthologised. But he is better known for his posthumously published ''Di ...
, and he contributed two illustrations to Edward Moxon's 1857 edition of
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's ''Poems'' and illustrations for works by his sister
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including " Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Bri ...
.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), pp. 175–76.]
His visions of Arthurian romance and medieval design also inspired
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...
.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), pp. 39–41.] Neither Burne-Jones nor Morris knew Rossetti, but were much influenced by his works, and met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their ''Oxford and Cambridge Magazine'' which Morris founded in 1856 to promote his ideas about art and poetry.
In February 1857, Rossetti wrote to
William Bell Scott
William Bell Scott (1811–1890) was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vivid picture of life in the ...
:
That summer Morris and Rossetti visited Oxford and finding the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
debating-hall under construction, pursued a commission to paint the upper walls with scenes from ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' and to decorate the roof between the open timbers. Seven artists were recruited, among them
Valentine Prinsep and
Arthur Hughes, and the work was hastily begun. The
frescoes, done too soon and too fast, began to fade at once and now are barely decipherable. Rossetti recruited two sisters, Bessie and
Jane Burden
Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to her husband William ...
, as models for the
Oxford Union murals
The Oxford Union murals (1857–1859) are a series of mural decorations in the Oxford Union library building. The series was executed by a team of Pre-Raphaelite artists including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. T ...
, and Jane became Morris's wife in 1859.
[Parry, ''William Morris'', pp. 14–16.]
Book arts
Literature was integrated into the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's artistic practice from the beginning (including that of Rossetti), with many paintings making direct literary references. For example,
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
' early work, ''
Isabella
Isabella may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Isabella (surname), including a list of people
Places
United States
* Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...
'' (1849), depicts an episode from
John Keats' ''
Isabella, or, the Pot of Basil'' (1818). Rossetti was particularly critical of the gaudy ornamentation of Victorian
gift book
Gift books, literary annuals, or keepsakes were 19th-century books, often lavishly decorated, which collected essays, short fiction, and poetry. They were primarily published in the autumn, in time for the holiday season and were intended to be g ...
s and sought to refine bindings and illustrations to align with the principles of the
Aesthetic Movement. Rossetti's key bindings were designed between 1861 and 1871. He collaborated as a designer/illustrator with his sister, poet
Christina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romantic, devotional and children's poems, including " Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well known in Bri ...
, on the first edition of ''
Goblin Market
''Goblin Market'' (composed in April 1859 and published in 1862) is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. The poem tells the story of Laura and Lizzie who are tempted with fruit by goblin merchants. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claim ...
'' (1862) and ''The Prince's Progress'' (1866).
One of Rossetti's most prominent contributions to illustration was the collaborative book, ''Poems'' by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (published by
Edward Moxon
Edward Moxon (12 December 1801 – 3 June 1858) was a British poet and publisher, significant in Victorian literature.
Biography
Moxon was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, where his father Michael worked in the wool trade. In 1817 he left ...
in 1857 and known colloquially as the 'Moxon Tennyson'). Moxon envisioned Royal Academicians as the illustrators for the ambitious project, but this vision was quickly disrupted once Millais, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, became involved in the project.
Millais recruited
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...
and Rossetti for the project, and the involvement of these artists reshaped the entire production of the book. In reference to the Pre-Raphaelite illustrations, Laurence Housman wrote "
..The illustrations of the Pre-Raphaelites were personal and intellectual readings of the poems to which they belonged, not merely echoes in line of the words of the text." The Pre-Raphaelites’ visualization of Tennyson's poems indicated the range of possibilities in interpreting written works, as did their unique approach to visualizing narrative on the canvas.
Pre-Raphaelite illustrations do not simply refer to the text in which they appear; rather, they are part of a bigger program of art: the book as a whole. Rossetti's philosophy about the role of illustration was revealed in an 1855 letter to poet
William Allingham
William Allingham (19 March 1824 – 18 November 1889) was an Irish poet, diarist and editor. He wrote several volumes of lyric verse, and his poem "The Faeries" was much anthologised. But he is better known for his posthumously published ''Di ...
, when he wrote, in reference to his work on the Moxon Tennyson:
"I have not begun even designing for them yet, but fancy I shall try the ''Vision of Sin'', and ''Palace of Art'' etc.—those where one can allegorize on one’s own hook, without killing for oneself and everyone a distinct idea of the poet’s."
This passage makes apparent Rossetti's desire not to just support the poet's narrative, but to create an allegorical illustration that functions separately from the text as well. In this respect, Pre-Raphaelite illustrations go beyond depicting an episode from a poem, but rather function like subject paintings within a text. Illustration is not subservient to text and vice versa. Careful and conscientious craftsmanship is practiced in every aspect of production, and each element, though qualifiedly artistic in its own right, contributes to a unified art object (the book).
Religious influence on works
England began to see a revival of religious beliefs and practices starting in 1833 and moving onward to about 1845. The
Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian Movement, had recently begun a push toward the restoration of
Christian traditions that had been lost in the Church of England. Rossetti and his family had been attending
Christ Church, Albany Street since 1843. His brother,
William Michael Rossetti
William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic.
Early life
Born in London, Rossetti was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Rossetti ''née'' Polidor ...
recorded that services had begun changing in the church since the start of the "High Anglican movement". Rev. William Dodsworth was responsible for these changes, including the addition of the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
practice of placing flowers and candles by the altar. Rossetti and his family, along with two of his colleagues (one of which cofounded the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) had also attended St. Andrew's on Wells Street, a
High Anglican
The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...
church. It is noted that the Anglo-Catholic revival very much affected Rossetti in the late 1840s and early 1850s. The spiritual expressions of his painting ''The Girlhood of Mary Virgin,'' finished in 1849, are evident of this claim. The painting's altar is decorated very similarly to that of a Catholic altar, proving his familiarity with the Anglo-Catholic revival. The subject of the painting, the Blessed Virgin, is sewing a red cloth, a significant part of the Oxford Movement that emphasized the embroidering of altar cloths by women.
Oxford Reformers identified two major aspects to their movement, that "the end of all religion must be communion with God," and "that the Church was divinely instituted for the very purpose of bringing about this consummation."
From the beginning of the Brotherhood's formation in 1848, their pieces of art included subjects of noble or religious disposition. Their aim was to communicate a message of "moral reform" through the style of their works, exhibiting a "truth to nature". Specifically in Rossetti's "Hand and Soul," written in 1849, he displays his main character Chiaro as an artist with spiritual inclinations. In the text, Chiaro's spirit appears before him in the form of a woman who instructs him to "set thine hand and thy soul to serve man with God." The Rossetti Archive defines this text as "Rossetti's way of constellating his commitments to art, religious devotion, and a thoroughly secular historicism." Likewise, in "The Blessed Damozel," written between 1847 and 1870, Rossetti uses biblical language such as "From the gold bar of Heaven" to describe the Damozel looking down to Earth from Heaven. Here we see a connection between body and soul, mortal and supernatural, a common theme in Rossetti's works. In "Ave" (1847), Mary awaits the day that she will meet her son in Heaven, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. The text highlights a strong element in
Anglican Marian theology
Anglican Marian theology is the summation of the doctrines and beliefs of Anglicanism concerning Mary, mother of Jesus. As Anglicans believe that Jesus was both human and God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, within the Anglican Communi ...
that describes Mary's body and soul having been assumed into Heaven.
William Michael Rossetti
William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic.
Early life
Born in London, Rossetti was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Rossetti ''née'' Polidor ...
, his brother, wrote in 1895: "He was never confirmed, professed no religious faith, and practised no regular religious observances; but he had ... sufficient sympathy with the abstract ideas and the venerable forms of Christianity to go occasionally to an Anglican church — very occasionally, and only as the inclination ruled him."
A new direction
Around 1860, Rossetti returned to oil painting, abandoning the dense medieval compositions of the 1850s in favour of powerful close-up images of women in flat pictorial spaces characterised by dense colour. These paintings became a major influence on the development of the European
Symbolist movement.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), pp. 52–54.] In them, Rossetti's depiction of women became almost obsessively stylised. He portrayed his new lover
Fanny Cornforth as the epitome of physical eroticism, whilst Jane Burden, the wife of his business partner William Morris, was glamorised as an ethereal goddess. "As in Rossetti's previous reforms, the new kind of subject appeared in the context of a wholesale reconfiguration of the practice of painting, from the most basic level of materials and techniques up to the most abstract or conceptual level of the meanings and ideas that can be embodied in visual form."
These new works were based not on medievalism, but on the Italian High
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
artists of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
,
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...
and
Veronese.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 64.]
In 1861, Rossetti became a founding partner in the
decorative arts
]
The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...
firm,
Morris & Co., Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. with Morris, Burne-Jones,
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...
, Philip Webb,
Charles Faulkner and
Peter Paul Marshall.
Rossetti contributed designs for stained glass and other decorative objects.
Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth, died of an overdose of
laudanum in 1862, possibly a suicide, shortly after giving birth to a stillborn child. Rossetti became increasingly depressed, and on the death of his beloved Lizzie, buried the bulk of his unpublished poems with her at
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
, though he later had them dug up. He idealised her image as
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...
's Beatrice in a number of paintings, such as ''
Beata Beatrix
''Beata Beatrix'' is a painting completed in several versions by Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The painting depicts Beatrice Portinari from Dante Alighieri's 1294 poem '' La Vita Nuova'' at the moment of her death. The first vers ...
''.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 80.]
Cheyne Walk years
After the death of his wife, Rossetti leased a Tudor House at 16,
Cheyne Walk
Cheyne Walk is an historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted ...
, in Chelsea
, where he lived for 20 years surrounded by extravagant furnishings and a parade of exotic birds and animals. Rossetti was fascinated with
wombat
Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are ada ...
s, asking friends to meet him at the "Wombat's Lair" at the
London Zoo in
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
, and spending hours there. In September 1869, he acquired the first of two pet wombats, which he named "Top". It was brought to the dinner table and allowed to sleep in the large centrepiece during meals. Rossetti's fascination with exotic animals continued throughout his life, culminating in the purchase of a
llama
The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era.
Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...
and a
toucan
Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five g ...
, which he dressed in a cowboy hat and trained to ride the llama round the dining-table for his amusement.
Rossetti maintained
Fanny Cornforth (described delicately by William Allington as Rossetti's "housekeeper") in her own establishment nearby in Chelsea, and painted many voluptuous images of her between 1863 and 1865.
In 1865, he discovered auburn-haired
Alexa Wilding
Alexa Wilding (born Alice Wilding, c. 1847 – 25 April 1884) was one of the favourite models of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, featuring in some of his finest paintings of the later 1860s and 1870s. She sat for more of h ...
, a dressmaker and would-be actress who was engaged to model for him on a full-time basis and sat for ''
Veronica Veronese
''Veronica Veronese'' is an oil painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted in 1872 with Alexa Wilding as the model. The painting was conceived as a companion to ''Lady Lilith.'' Rossetti sold the painting to one of his best clients, shipping mag ...
'', ''
The Blessed Damozel
"The Blessed Damozel" is perhaps the best known poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, as well as the title of his painting (and its replica) illustrating the subject. The poem was first published in 1850 in the Pre-Raphaelite journal '' The Germ''. Ro ...
'', ''
A Sea–Spell'', and other paintings.
[Todd (2001), p. 116.][Pedrick (1964), p. 130] She sat for more of his finished works than any other model, but comparatively little is known about her due to the lack of any romantic connection with Rossetti. He spotted her one evening in the
Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
in 1865 and was immediately struck by her beauty. She agreed to sit for him the following day, but failed to arrive. He spotted her again weeks later, jumped from the cab he was in and persuaded her to go straight to his studio. He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might employ her. They shared a lasting bond; after Rossetti's death Wilding was said to have travelled regularly to place a wreath on his grave.
Jane Morris, whom Rossetti had used as a model for the Oxford Union murals he painted with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in 1857, also sat for him during these years, she "consumed and obsessed him in paint, poetry, and life".
Jane Morris was also photographed by
John Robert Parsons
John Robert Parsons ( – January 1909) was an Irish photographer and painter. He is best known by the series of photographs he made in 1865 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti's model Jane Morris.
Life and work
Parsons was born in Dublin, the son of gent ...
, whose photographs were painted by Rossetti. In 1869, Morris and Rossetti rented a country house,
Kelmscott Manor
Kelmscott Manor is a limestone manor house in the Cotswolds village of Kelmscott, in West Oxfordshire, southern England. It dates from around 1570, with a late 17th-century wing, and is listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for Engla ...
at
Kelmscott
Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census reco ...
, Oxfordshire, as a summer home, but it became a retreat for Rossetti and Jane Morris to have a long-lasting and complicated liaison. They spent summers there with the Morrises' children, while William Morris travelled to
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
in 1871 and 1873.
During these years, Rossetti was prevailed upon by friends, in particular
Charles Augustus Howell
Charles Augustus Howell (10 March 1840 – 21 April 1890) was an art dealer and alleged blackmailer who is best known for persuading the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti to dig up the poems he buried with his wife Elizabeth Siddal. His reputation as ...
, to exhume his poems from his wife's grave which he did, collating and publishing them in 1870 in the volume ''Poems by D. G. Rossetti''. They created controversy when they were attacked as the epitome of the
"fleshly school of poetry". Their eroticism and sensuality caused offence. One poem, "Nuptial Sleep", described a couple falling asleep after sex. It was part of Rossetti's
sonnet sequence A sonnet sequence is a group of sonnets thematically unified to create a long work, although generally, unlike the stanza, each sonnet so connected can also be read as a meaningful separate unit.
The sonnet sequence was a very popular genre during ...
''The House of Life'', a complex series of poems tracing the physical and spiritual development of an intimate relationship. Rossetti described the sonnet form as a "moment's monument", implying that it sought to contain the feelings of a fleeting moment, and reflect on their meaning. ''The House of Life'' was a series of interacting monuments to these moments – an elaborate whole made from a
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
of intensely described fragments. It was Rossetti's most substantial literary achievement. The collection included some translations, including his "Ballad Of Dead Ladies", an 1869 translation of
François Villon
François Villon ( Modern French: , ; – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these ...
's poem "
Ballade des dames du temps jadis". (The word "
yesteryear" is credited to Rossetti as a neologism used for the first time in this translation.)
In 1881, Rossetti published a second volume of poems, ''Ballads and Sonnets'', which included the remaining sonnets from ''The House of Life'' sequence.
Decline and death
The savage reaction of critics to Rossetti's first collection of poetry contributed to a mental breakdown in June 1872, and although he joined Jane Morris at Kelmscott that September, he "spent his days in a haze of
chloral
Chloral, also known as trichloroacetaldehyde or trichloroethanal, is the organic compound with the formula Cl3CCHO. This aldehyde is a colourless oily liquid that is soluble in a wide range of solvents. It reacts with water to form chloral hydrate ...
and whisky".
[Todd (2001), pp. 128–129.] The next summer he was much improved, and both
Alexa Wilding
Alexa Wilding (born Alice Wilding, c. 1847 – 25 April 1884) was one of the favourite models of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, featuring in some of his finest paintings of the later 1860s and 1870s. She sat for more of h ...
and Jane sat for him at Kelmscott, where he created a soulful series of dream-like portraits.
In 1874, Morris reorganised his decorative arts firm, cutting Rossetti out of the business, and the polite fiction that both men were in residence with Jane at
Kelmscott
Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census reco ...
could not be maintained. Rossetti abruptly left Kelmscott in July 1874 and never returned. Toward the end of his life, he sank into a morbid state, darkened by his
drug addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...
to
chloral hydrate
Chloral hydrate is a geminal diol with the formula . It is a colorless solid. It has limited use as a sedative and hypnotic pharmaceutical drug. It is also a useful laboratory chemical reagent and precursor. It is derived from chloral (trichl ...
and increasing mental instability. He spent his last years as a recluse at Cheyne Walk.
On Easter Sunday, 1882, he died at the country house of a friend, where he had gone in a vain attempt to recover his health, which had been destroyed by chloral as his wife's had been destroyed by
laudanum. He died of
Bright's Disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied ...
, a disease of the kidneys from which he had been suffering for some time. He had been housebound for some years on account of paralysis of the legs, though his chloral addiction is believed to have been a means of alleviating pain from a botched
hydrocele removal. He had been suffering from alcohol psychosis for some time brought on by the excessive amounts of whisky he used to drown out the bitter taste of the chloral hydrate. He is buried in the churchyard of All Saints at
Birchington-on-Sea
Birchington-on-Sea is a village in the Thanet district in Kent, England, with a population of 9,961.
The village forms part of the civil parish of Birchington. It lies on the coast facing the North Sea, east of the Thames Estuary, between th ...
, Kent, England.
Collections and critical assessment
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
,
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
Museum and Art Galleries and
Wightwick Manor
The legacy of a family's passion for Victorian art and design, Wightwick Manor (pronounced "Wittick") is a Victorian manor house located on Wightwick Bank, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Owned by the National Trust since 1937, the Mano ...
National Trust, all contain large collections of Rossetti's work; Salford was bequeathed a number of works following the death of
L. S. Lowry
Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...
in 1976. Lowry was president of the Newcastle-based 'Rossetti Society', which was founded in 1966. Lowry's private collection of works was chiefly built around Rossetti's paintings and sketches of Lizzie Siddal and Jane Morris, and notable pieces included ''Pandora'', '' Proserpine'' and a drawing of
Annie Miller
Annie Miller (1835–1925) was an English artists' model who, among others, sat for the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais. Her on-off relationship with Holman Hunt ...
.
In an interview with
Mervyn Levy
Mervyn Levy (11 February 1914 – 14 April 1996) was a Welsh artist, art teacher and writer on art. Born in Swansea, where he became a friend of the painter Alfred Janes, the poet Dylan Thomas and the musician Daniel Jones, he spent most of his t ...
, Lowry explained his fascination with the Rossetti women in relation to his own work: "I don't like his women at all, but they fascinate me, like a snake. That's why I always buy Rossetti whenever I can. His women are really rather horrible. It's like a friend of mine who says he hates my work, although it fascinates him."
[Rohde (2000), p. 276.] The friend Lowry referred to was businessman Monty Bloom, to whom he also explained his obsession with Rossetti's portraits: "They are not real women.
..They are dreams.
..He used them for something in his mind caused by the death of his wife. I may be quite wrong there, but significantly they all came after the death of his wife."
The popularity, frequent reproduction, and general availability of Rossetti's later paintings of women have led to this association with "a morbid and languorous sensuality".
[Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 12.] His small-scale early works and drawings are less well known, but it is in these that his originality, technical inventiveness, and significance in the movement away from Academic tradition can best be seen.
[Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 16.] As
Roger Fry
Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...
wrote in 1916, "Rossetti more than any other artist since
Blake
Blake is a surname which originated from Old English. Its derivation is uncertain; it could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin, or from "blaac", a nickname for someone with pale hair or skin. Another theory, presuma ...
may be hailed as a forerunner of the new ideas" in English Art.
[Quoted in Treuherz et al. (2003), p. 12.]
Media
;Film
Rossetti was played by
Oliver Reed
Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...
in
Ken Russell's television film ''
Dante's Inferno
''Inferno'' (; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem ''Divine Comedy''. It is followed by ''Purgatorio'' and '' Paradiso''. The ''Inferno'' describes Dante's journey through Hell, gui ...
'' (1967). The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood has been the subject of two
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
period dramas. The first, ''
as Rossetti. The second was ''
. It was broadcast on
on Tuesday, 21 July 2009.
;Television
Dr. Frasier Crane (
'' as Dante Gabriel Rossetti for his Hallowe'en costume. His wife Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane appears as Rossetti's sister, Christina. Their son Frederick is dressed as Spiderman.
' novel "Hide Me Among the Graves," in which both the Rossettis' uncle John Polidori and Gabriel's wife Lizzie act as hosts for vampiric beings, and whose influence inspires the artistic genius of the family.
(1872-1958) created his song cycle ''The House of Life'' from six poems by Rossetti. One song in that cycle, Silent Noon, is one of Vaughan Williams's best known and most frequently performed songs.
In 1904,
painted ''The Awakening'', inspired by a sonnet from Rossetti's ''The House of Life''.
There is evidence to suggest that a number of paintings by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Rossetti.
The 1990s grunge band
used lines from Rossetti's "Superscription", from ''House of Life'', in their song "
'': while Rossetti's line read "Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been" the Hole lyric is "Look at my face; my name is Might-have-been."
* ''The Early Italian Poets'' (a translation), 1861; republished as ''Dante and His Circle'', 1874
* ''Poems'', 1870; revised and reissued as ''Poems. A New Edition'', 1881
* ''Ballads and Sonnets'', 1881
* ''The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti'', 2 volumes, 1886 (posthumous)
* ''Ballads and Narrative Poems'', 1893 (posthumous)
* ''Sonnets and Lyrical Poems'', 1894 (posthumous)
* ''The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti'', 1911 (posthumous)
* ''Poems and Translations 1850–1870, Together with the Prose Story 'Hand and Soul, Oxford University Press, 1913
"Rossetti divided his attention between painting and poetry for the rest of his life" - Poetry Foundation
* ''Aspecta Medusa'' (1865 October – 1868)
* ''Astarte Syriaca'' (for a Picture; 1877 January–February; 1875–1877)
* ''Beatrice, her Damozels, and Love'' (1865?)
* ''Beauty and the Bird'' (1855; 1858 June 25)
* ''The Blessed Damozel'' (1847–1870; 1871–1881)
* ''Bocca Baciata'' (1859–1860)
* ''Body's Beauty'' (1864–1869; 1866)
* ''The Bride's Prelude''
* ''Cassandra'' (for a drawing; September 1869; 1860–1861, 1867, 1869)
* ''Dante's Dream on the Day of the Death of Beatrice: 9 June 1290'' (1875
1856)
* ''Dante Alighieri. "Sestina. Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni."'' (1848
* ''The Day-Dream'' (for a picture; 1878–1880, 1880 September)
* ''Death of A Wombat'' (6 November 1869)
* ''Eden Bower''
* ''"Found"'' (for a picture; 1854; 1881 February)
* ''Francesca Da Rimini. Dante'' (1855; 1862 September)
* ''Guido Cavalcanti. "Ballata. He reveals, in a Dialogue, his increasing love for Mandetta."'' (1861)
* ''Hand and Soul'' (1849)
* ''Hero's Lamp'' (1875)
* ''Introductory Sonnet'' ("A Sonnet is a moment's monument"; 1880)
* ''Joan of Arc''
* ''La Bella Mano'' (for a picture; 1875)
* ''La Pia. Dante'' (1868–1880)
* ''Lisa ed Elviro'' (1843)
* ''Love's Greeting'' (1850, 1861, 1864)
* ''Mary's Girlhood''
* ''Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee'' (for a drawing; 1853–1859; 1869)
* ''Michael Scott's Wooing'' (for a drawing; 1853, 1869–1871, 1875–1876)
* ''Mnemosyne'' (1880)
* ''Old and New Art''
* ''On William Morris'' (1871 September)
* ''Pandora'' (for a picture; 1869; 1868–1871)
* ''Parody on "Uncle Ned"'' (1852)
* ''Parted Love!''
* ''The Passover in the Holy Family'' (for a drawing; 1849–1856; 1869 September)
* ''Perlascura. Twelve Coins for One Queen'' (1878)
* ''The Portrait'' (1869)
* ''Proserpine'' (1872; 1871–1882)
* ''The Question'' (for a design; 1875, 1882)
* ''"Retro me, Sathana!"'' (1847, 1848)
* ''The Return of Tibullus to Delia'' (1853–1855, 1867)
* ''A Sea-Spell'' (for a Picture; 1870, 1877)
* ''The Seed of David'' (for a picture; 1864)
* ''Silence. For a Design'' (1870, 1877)
* ''Sister Helen''
* ''Sorrentino'' (1843)
* ''Soul's Beauty'' (1866; 1864–1870)
* ''St. Agnes of Intercession'' (1850; 1860)
* ''Troy Town'' (1863–1864; 1869–1870)
* ''Venus Verticordia'' (for a picture; 1868 January 16; 1863–1869)
* ''William and Marie. A Ballad'' (1841)
(1995), ''Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. London: Pavilion Books ; New York: Abrams .
* Doughty, Oswald (1949), ''A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. London: Frederick Muller.
* Drew, Rodger (2006), ''The Stream's Secret: The Symbolism of Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, .
* Fredeman, William E. (1971). ''Prelude to the Last Decade: Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the summer of 1872''. Manchester
The John Rylands Library.
* Fredeman, William E. (ed.) (2002–08), ''The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. 7 vols. Cambridge: Brewer.
* Hilton, Timothy (1970). ''The Pre-Raphaelites''. London: Thames and Hudson, New York: H. N. Abrams. .
*
(2013), ''Dante Gabriel Rossetti - an anthology'' (poems and translations, with introduction). Cambridge University Press
* Marsh, Jan (1996). ''The Pre-Raphaelites: Their Lives in Letters and Diaries''. London: Collins & Brown.
* McGann, J. J. (2000). ''Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Game that Must Be Lost''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Parry, Linda (1996), ed., ''William Morris''. New York: Abrams, .
* Pedrick, G. (1964). ''Life with Rossetti: or, No peacocks allowed''. London:Macdonald. ISBN
* Roe, Dinah: ''The Rossettis in Wonderland. A Victorian Family History''. London: Haus Publishing, 2011.
* Rossetti, D. G., & J. Marsh (2000). ''Collected Writings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. Chicago: New Amsterdam Books.
* Rossetti, D. G., &
, ed. (1911), ''The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. Ellis, London.
* Sharp, Frank C., and Jan Marsh (2012), ''The Collected Letters of Jane Morris'', Boydell & Brewer, London.
* Simons, J. (2008). ''Rossetti's Wombat: Pre-Raphaelites and Australian animals in Victorian London''. London: Middlesex University Press.
* Treuherz, Julian,
, and Becker, Edwin (2003). ''Dante Gabriel Rossetti''. London: Thames & Hudson, .
* Todd, Pamela (2001). ''Pre-Raphaelites at Home'', New York: Watson-Giptill Publications, .
* Sylvie Broussine, Christopher Newall (2021). 'Rossetti's Portraits', Pallas Athene, .
* Debra N. Mancoff (2021). 'Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Portraits of Women (Victoria and Albert Museum)', Thames and Hudson Ltd,
. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.