Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London in 1828. His father was Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian poet and academic, who taught at King’s College, London. D.G. was born in London in 1828, to a rather large family. He had two brothers and one sister, Christina, who would later establish herself as a poet in her own right. DG entered Sass’s in 1830, which was something of a preparatory school for the Royal Academy. He studied there for four years and in the summer of 1845, Rossetti became a probationer student at the Royal Academy. It was during his first year that Rossetti discovered the work of William Blake, at the British Museum; he was also developing a taste for the poetry of Robert Browning.
Rossetti’s attendance at the R.A. was at best sporadic, as he found studying there to be repetitious and boring. He had been doing the same exercises far too long and had yet to be allowed to handle oil paint and brushes. He left the RA soon thereafter in order to study privately under Ford Madox Brown.
In 1848, Rossetti met William Millais, who along with William Holman Hunt, agreed that the teaching of Joshua Reynolds had damaged the quality of English art. They considered the Italian painter, Raphael, to be the most respected of the academic artists. As Timothy Hilton points out, Raphael’s ‘Transformation’ ‘had shown a grandiose disregard of the simplicity of truth, the pompous posturing of the Apostles, and the unspiritual attitudinising of the Saviour’ (Hilton, 29). Hunt quickly introduced Rossetti to Millais and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed. They chose the name ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ out of admiration for the Flemish and Italian artists who pre-dated Raphael.
Rossetti’s ‘The Girlhood of the Virgin Mary’ marked his first work as a member of the PRB. His sister Christina modelled for the Virgin Mary, his mother for St Anne, and the Rossetti family’s odd job man modelled St Joachim. The finished work was exhibited at the RA in the spring of 1849 and was sold to the Dowager Marchioness of Bath. In January of 1849, Rossetti began ‘Ecce Ancilla Domini’ (it was eventually renamed ‘the Annunciation’ in order to avoid suspicion of papal loyalty). As with ‘The Girlhood’, Christina sat for the Virgin Mary. Unfortunately, the others in the Brotherhood became angry with Rossetti, when he exhibited at the National Institution, the same year, accusing him of attempting to steal the limelight from the others in the Brotherhood. The relationship between Rossetti and the others in the PRB deteriorated further when it was suspected that it was he who had revealed the existence of the Brotherhood to the art establishment and had given away what the initials ‘PRB’ stood for. However, Rossetti’s gregarious personality won him forgiveness.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to A. Wilson's Victorian Art topic, please visit the Discussions page.