Dante Gabriel Rossetti
A founding spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he fused medieval romance with intense sensuality to redefine Victorian art and poetry.
1828–1882 (age 54)·English poet and artist·Birthday: May 12
Biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a central figure in the 19th-century British art world, a man whose life was as dramatic as his canvases. Born into an Italian émigré family of intellectuals in London, he co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, a radical group of young artists rejecting the era's academic conventions in favor of luminous detail and literary themes. His early work, like 'The Girlhood of Mary Virgin,' announced this new vision. Rossetti's life was marked by profound personal tragedy, most notably the death of his wife and muse, Elizabeth Siddal, which plunged him into grief and led him to bury a manuscript of poems with her, later exhuming it for publication. His later career shifted towards sumptuous, dream-like portraits of women with symbolic attributes, which became enormously influential. He cultivated a bohemian studio-house in Chelsea, a chaotic hub for artists and writers, and his work, blending poetry and painting, paved the way for the Aesthetic movement's creed of 'art for art's sake.'
#1 When Dante Was Born
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Dante's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1828Born
1833Started school
1841Became a teenager
1844Could drive
1846Could vote
1849Turned 21
1858Turned 30
1868Turned 40
President: Andrew Johnson
1878Turned 50
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1882Died at 54
First electrical power plant opens in New York
President: Chester A. Arthur
Key Achievements
- Co-founded the influential Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.
- Painted 'Beata Beatrix,' a profound elegy for his late wife Elizabeth Siddal that became an iconic Pre-Raphaelite image.
- Published 'Poems' in 1870, a collection that solidified his literary reputation alongside his artistic one.
- His later, stylized portraits like 'Proserpine' directly inspired the European Symbolist movement.
- Acted as a mentor and central figure for a second wave of artists, including Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.
Did You Know?
He had a pet wombat named Top that he would bring to dinner parties at his Chelsea home.
He insisted on exhuming his wife Elizabeth Siddal's coffin seven years after her death to retrieve a book of poems he had buried with her.
His full name at birth was Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti; he later rearranged it to emphasize his connection to the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
He was a talented translator of Italian poetry, notably producing an English version of Dante's 'Vita Nuova.'
“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.”
