The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848–1849)
Tate Britain, London
His first major oil and the first to be exhibited signed 'PRB'; his sister Christina posed as Mary
Image: Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Art
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1828–1882 · English
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a poet-painter and co-founder, with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Moving from early religious scenes to sensuous half-length images of women drawn from myth and Dante, he shaped the Aesthetic Movement and the Victorian ideal of the brooding 'stunner'.
How to spot them
- ▸Half-length women with long necks, full lips and masses of rippling red or dark hair
- ▸Rich jewel colours, flowers and symbols; titles from Dante, myth or Italian poetry
- ▸Models to know: Elizabeth Siddal, Jane Morris, Fanny Cornforth and Alexa Wilding
- ▸Quiz clue: PRB co-founder, sister of poet Christina Rossetti, Cheyne Walk, Beata Beatrix
Key works
Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation) (1849–1850)
Tate Britain, London
A startlingly white Annunciation with a cowering Virgin Mary
Image: Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Beata Beatrix (c. 1864–1870)
Tate Britain, London
Memorial to his wife Elizabeth Siddal as Dante's Beatrice; a red dove drops a poppy into her hands
Image: Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Proserpine (1874)
Tate Britain, London
Jane Morris as the queen of the underworld holding a pomegranate
Image: Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Lady Lilith (1866–1868, altered 1872–1873)
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
Adam's first wife combing her golden hair; model Fanny Cornforth, face later repainted from Alexa Wilding
Image: Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
The Day Dream (1880)
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Jane Morris seated in a sycamore tree holding a sprig of honeysuckle
Image: Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in London in 1828, the son of the Italian exile and Dante scholar Gabriele Rossetti.
- •He co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.
- •His sister was the poet Christina Rossetti, author of 'Goblin Market'.
- •He married his model Elizabeth Siddal in 1860; she died of a laudanum overdose in 1862.
- •He buried a manuscript of his poems in Siddal's coffin at Highgate Cemetery, then had her exhumed in 1869 to retrieve them.
- •He lived at 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where he kept exotic animals including wombats.
- •Jane Morris, wife of William Morris, was his muse and lover in later life.
- •He died at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, in 1882.
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