Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) was a British painter, poet and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose work helped redefine the aesthetic and spiritual ambitions of Victorian art. Born in London to an Italian émigré scholar and raised in an intellectually rich household, Rossetti was deeply influenced by medieval literature, Renaissance art and Romantic poetry from a young age. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and later under Ford Madox Brown, but quickly rejected academic conventions in favour of a more emotive, symbolic and detailed style.

In 1848, Rossetti co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood alongside William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. United by a desire to return to the sincerity and rich detail of early Renaissance painting, the group championed realism, complex symbolism and literary sources. Rossetti’s early works, such as The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849), combined religious themes with intricate naturalism and elaborate iconography.

From the 1860s onward, Rossetti developed a more sensual, introspective aesthetic, often depicting idealised female figures drawn from myth, allegory and literature. These portraits — many featuring his muse Elizabeth Siddal and later Jane Morris — emphasised mood, colour and psychological depth, reflecting a shift towards the Aesthetic movement. His best-known paintings from this period, including Beata Beatrix (c. 1864–70) and Proserpine (1874), are celebrated for their intense atmosphere and layered symbolism.

A prolific poet as well as a painter, Rossetti’s dual talents often intertwined, with many of his paintings accompanied by verses. His collection Poems (1870) and The House of Life sonnet sequence explored themes of love, loss and artistic creation, further cementing his status as a leading figure of 19th-century British art and literature.

Rossetti’s influence extended beyond his lifetime, shaping Symbolist and Aesthetic movements across Europe. His work is held in major institutions including Tate Britain, the Ashmolean Museum and the Delaware Art Museum.