British Artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Painter and Poet
© Meg Nola
Jul 15, 2008
Dante Gabriel Rossetti – generally called just Gabriel by friends and family – was born on May 12, 1828. His father was a poet and scholar and his mother a teacher, with other siblings of the remarkable Rossetti clan including poet Christina and writers Maria and William Michael.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Gabriel showed notable artistic talent as a boy and later studied at The Royal Academy and with painter Ford Madox Brown. Through his training, Rossetti met two other young painters named William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. In 1848, along with Hunt and Millais, Rossetti founded The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an artistic group whose credo was to embrace natural forms and themes and a clearer use of color, while rejecting overly stylized principles. Rounding out the original Pre-Raphaelite Seven were Rossetti’s brother William and fellow writer Frederick George Stephens, painter James Collinson and sculptor Thomas Woolner.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood got a boost from contemporary art critic John Ruskin, who praised their work and also purchased many of Rossetti’s paintings. At this time, Rossetti was establishing a reputation as both a poet and painter, and throughout his life he would have alternating passions for the two crafts. Interestingly, Rossetti’s poetry has a visual richness that might come from an artistically inclined person, while his paintings have a sense of detail and context that might very well come from a poet.
Lizzie and Jane
Many of Rossetti’s models and muses had long blonde or red hair and a medieval or mythological allure. Rossetti’s “coppery” haired wife Elizabeth (Lizzie) Siddal was featured in several of his paintings, including the poignant Beata Beatrix, done after Lizzie’s death. Their relationship began with intensity, and Lizzie was even able to develop some of her own creative talents through the encouragement of Rossetti and John Ruskin. When her first child was stillborn, however, Lizzie became deeply depressive. She had also sensed earlier that Rossetti’s interest in her was fading, and in 1862 she died from a laudanum overdose. The guilt from Lizzie’s possible suicide would torment Rossetti for the remainder of his own life.
Beyond his Pre-Raphaelite founding colleagues, Rossetti’s alliance with painter, poet and Arts & Crafts movement designer William Morris would prove to be another significant relationship. William’s wife, Jane Burden Morris, was also close to Rossetti and posed for several of his paintings, including Proserpine and The Day Dream. Jane was distinctive in Rossetti’s work in that she was brunette and not his usual lighter-haired type, and because her general appearance suggests more of an earthly than otherworldly beauty. Rossetti and Jane may have even had an affair, although Jane remained with Morris until his death in 1896.
Troubled Later Years
Rossetti had a strong temperament with frequent emotional ups and downs. Such tendencies – combined with the frustrations of an artistic life, probable romantic feelings for Jane Morris, haunted visions and continuing remorse over Lizzie’s death – led Rossetti to become overly dependent on alcohol and a substance known as chloral as he reached middle age. His judgment grew impaired and rather than escaping his troubles, Rossetti instead found them pushing him toward the cusp of madness.
Legacy
Dante Gabriel Rossetti died in 1882, the once charismatically vibrant man turned near-reclusive. While he often felt harangued by critics and public opinion, his works as a painter and poet have stood the test of time and he continues to be regarded highly in both areas. Rossetti’s paintings can be found at The Tate Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and The Art Institute of Chicago, and a surreal Ken Russell interpretation of his life was depicted in the 1967 film Dante‘s Inferno, starring Oliver Reed as Rossetti.
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