Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a British painter and poet. He was born in London.
Education
He studied drawing with Cotman and, in 1848, with Holman Hunt.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
In 1848, Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Rossetti founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 1850 with William Morris, he painted frescoes for the Oxford Union debating hall. Morris, G.F. Watts, Edward Burne-Jones, and John Ruskin began supporting the Pre-Raphaelites in 1851 and later became members.
In the 1860s, Rossetti, like his friend James Abbot McNeill Whistler, began to collect Chinese porcelain and Japanese woodcuts. Profoundly affected by the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal in 1862, Rossetti became more and more eccentric and ceased painting in 1877. He published Poems (1870) and his last work, Ballads and Sonnets (1881).
Encouraged in the early years by Hunt and Morris, he became involved in the applied arts. Rossetti designed furniture and stained glass and, primarily through his graphic design, was influential on the continent and in the USA.
Rossetti was involved in the formation of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, the Arts and Crafts decorating firm founded by William Morris and others, and contributed designs.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
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