Rossetti sofa designed and painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Rossetti sofa designed and painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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. 

Devil and Damned Soul Descending by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Devil and Damned Soul Descending by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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). 

Frontispiece for Goblin Market (Christina Rossetti), 1862 British
Frontispiece for Goblin Market (Christina Rossetti), 1862 British

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. 

The Fight between Tristram and Sir Marhaus stained glass designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Fight between Tristram and Sir Marhaus stained glass designed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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.

Bruce J. Talbert (1838-1881) British architect and designer – Encyclopedia of Design

Bruce J. Talbert (1838-1881) was a British architect and designer. He was born in Dundee, Scotland. He was apprenticed to cabinet-carver Millar and subsequently to Charles Edwards, an architect in Dundee, who worked on the Corn Exchange Hall. In 1856, he settled in Glasgow, working in W.H. Tait and Cambell Douglas’s architecture office.

William Morris – beauty of practicality – Encyclopedia of Design

Born March 24, 1834 “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or beautiful.” That was the rallying call of the nineteenth-century designer, William Morris, a British designer and social reformer. He aimed to rid the world of shoddy mass-produced goods and replace them with objects that were designed and made by artists.

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