Brief Biography- Dante Gabriel (Charles) Rossetti was first a poet up until nineteen. He was born in Portland Place, London, one of four children of a literary family whose parents were from Italy. His father was a professor of Languages at King’s College. After three years at a drawing school, he entered the Royal Academy in 1845. He was unimpressed by the academic learning of both schools and spent time with Ford Madox Brown but was disappointed with his academic teaching.
At the academy, he befriended John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt who had a similar mindset regarding the academy. In 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was born with the addition of four other artists. The Brotherhood received intense criticism when the art world realised its disregard for the extremity the establishment held for Raphael. Ironically, their critics’ publicity ultimately led to a degree of success. Rossetti, however, was disheartened by the criticism and the Brotherhood eventually broke up.
He settled in Chatham Place, Blackfriars and with the help of John Ruskin, he sold paintings privately. In 1860, he married Elizabeth Siddal; she had been a model for Millais and was his Ophelia. Rossetti was obsessed with painting her, and she appeared in many of his most noted paintings. Unfortunately, she died two years later, and he was so upset he buried her with all his poems.
After a failed venture, painting the Oxford Union debating hall with other artists, he settled in Chelsea. Here he engaged in collecting curiosities that appear in many of his works. For health reasons, he visited Scotland, where he took to writing more poetry. He exhumed his old poems from Lizzie’s grave and had them published. They were a success; however, he received criticism on morality, leading to his depression. He fell very ill in 1877 but continued to write, and he published Poems and Ballads, which were also successful. In 1881, he had a stroke and became somewhat paralysed; a year later, he died while convalescing at Birchington-On-Sea, where he rests.