Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82,) properly Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, was an English painter and poet. He was a brother of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti and the critic William Michael Rossetti.
Born in London, Rossetti was educated at King’s College School and attended Cary’s Art Academy. With William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters treating religious, moral, and medieval subjects in a nonacademic manner. All through the 1840s, Rossetti developed his poetry and painting, completing on canvas ‘The Girlhood of Mary Virgin’ (1849) and ‘Ecce Ancilla Domini’ (1850.)
After the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood dispersed, Rossetti developed a unique style of medieval Romanticism. He is best known for his dreamy and idealized images of women, including ‘Beata Beatrix’ (1863,) which he often modeled on his wife Elizabeth Siddal, and ‘The Blessed Damozel’ (1871–79.)
Rossetti’s poetry includes Ballads and Sonnets (1881.) In addition, he was a gifted translator from the Italian (The Early Italian Poets Together with Dante’s Vita Nuova, 1861; later Dante and his Circle, 1874,) and of the poet Guido Cavalcanti.
Rossetti’s later years were overshadowed by ill health and the abuse of the drug chloral.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Love is the last relay and ultimate outposts of eternity.
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Topics: Love
Was it a friend or foe that spread these lies? Nay, who but infants question in such wise, ’twas one of my most intimate enemies.
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Topics: Enemies
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