Dante Gabriel Rossetti and PreRaphaelite Art The Early

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Pre-Raphaelite Art

The Early Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 -1882) • Rossetti’s father, Gabriele (1783 -1854), was an Italian expatriat - a political refugee from Naples. Gabriele Rossetti was a Dante scholar and professor of Italian at King’s College, London. D. G. Rossetti’s mother, Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori Rossetti, was the daughter of Lord Byron’s physician and companion, Dr. John Polidori. She was half English and half Italian. • Rossetti attended King’s College and Carey’s Art Academy. In 1845, he was admitted to the Royal Academy schools. He left the Academy in disgust at their teaching methods, which he considered to be hidebound and reactionary. • He studied briefly under the artist Ford Madox Brown and shared a studio with William Holman Hunt. Together with John Everett Millais, Hunt and Rossetti formed the PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD in September, 1848. The BROTHERHOOD sought to turn against the prevailing orthodoxies of British art, which were built upon the foundation of specialist training at the

Royal Academy. Their work was deliberately shocking in its effects. • They were subjected to bitter attacks from other artists and critics, beginning with their infamous Royal Academy exhibition of 1849. All of their paintings at this exhibition included the same initials, “P. R. B. ” • Their reputation was partially aided by the support of the most influential art critic of the day, John Ruskin wrote enthusiastically about the Pre-Raphaelites’ 1849 exhibition in a series of letters to the London Times. Ruskin continued to support them, often buying major artworks from group members. On Pre-Raphaelite Art Pre-Raphaelite art was noted by critics for its interest in nature, its verisimilitude, and its attention to detail. Other notable qualities are its use of striking and unusual colors and the deliberate “flatness” of the images. Prominent subjects in early Pre-Raphaelite art include early and medieval English legends, Ancient myth, and Christian allegory. Dante and Tennyson’s works were particularly popular sources.

Women were represented with great attention to anatomical details, especially their hair. Women were idealized, generally, as objects of beauty and as representatives of the soul. For an early literary representation of Pre-Raphaelite principles, see Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 1849 short story “Hand Soul. ” As one critic puts it, “Hand Soul” “tells the tale of a fictional early Renaissance painter, who, depressed by the failure of his art to improve the world, has a vision in which his soul comes to him in the form of a beautiful woman. She instructs him that he should paint her, his own soul. Such a pronouncement, which provides the program for all Rossetti's later paintings of women, embodies the attenuated romanticism that is the essence of the Aesthetic movement, for it holds that the artist's only duty is to cultivate his own emotions and imagination and then express them. ”

Hey, kids! Let’s now look at some works by the two other major early Pre-Raphaelite painters, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais

William Holman Hunt (1827 -1910)

William Holman Hunt, “The Lady of Shalott” (1850)

William Holman Hunt, “The Lady of Shalott” (1857)

William Holman Hunt, “Bianca” (1858 -59)

William Holman Hunt, “A Study of Firelight” (1862)

William Holman Hunt, “The Lady of Shalott” (late)

John Everett Millais (1829 -1896)

John Everett Millais, “Mariana” (1851)

Millais, “A Dream of the Past”

Millais, “The Bridesmaid” (1851)

Millais, “The Knight Errant” (1870)

Rossetti’s Caricature of Millais (ca. 1853)

On The Germ Rossetti and his brother, the critic William Michael Rossetti, pressed for the founding of a literary magazine devoted to propounding the group’s tastes, and in January through April 1850, four issues of The Germ were published. It sold for a shilling. Soon after the print run of The Germ ended, a new Pre-Raphaelite publication, Art and Poetry, was published, until 1853, when its run ended. The first generation of Pre-Raphaelite activity thus ended. Dante Gabriel Rossetti published “Hand Soul, ” an early version of “The Blessed Damozel, ” and several other poems during the short run of The Germ. As one critic has noted, there was an “ethos of inclusion” at The Germ that was not evident in the rather exclusive club of earlier Pre. Raphaelitism. “Outside” authors such as Christina Rossetti and Coventry Patmore were included as contributors to the journal.

First Issue of The Germ: Thoughts Toward Nature in Poetry, Literature, and Art (January, 1850)

OPENING POEM ON THE COVER OF THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE GERM (January 1850) When whoso merely hath a little thought Will plainly think the thought which is for him, — Not imaging another’s bright or dim, Not mangling with new words what others taught; When whoso speaks, from having either sought Or only found, —will speak, not just to skim A shallow surface with words made and trim, But in that very speech the matter brought: Be not too keen to cry—“So this is all!— A thing I might myself have thought as well, But would not say it, for it was not worth!” Ask: “Is this truth? ” For is it still to tell That, be theme a point or the whole earth, Truth is a circle, perfect, great or small?

The dominant female figure in Rossetti’s early art and life: Elizabeth Siddal (1829 -1862) Siddal was the daughter of a Sheffield cutler and small businessman. They met in 1850, when she was working as a model for Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti was 22 years old, and Siddal was 16 or 17. Siddal and Rossetti were engaged in 1851, and beginning in 1852 she studied with him as an artist. She was his chief model throughout the 1850 s. By 1855, John Ruskin had become her patron – he bought all of her work, and paid for her further travel and education. Her exhibition debut was at the Pre-Raphaelite salon at Russell Place in the summer of 1857, with drawings on literary subjects and a self-portrait in oils; the watercolour Clerk Saunders was also included in the British Art show that toured the U. S.

Siddal and Rossetti married in 1860. She appears to have committed suicide in 1862, at age 32, overdosing on Laudanum (liquid opium). The reasons for her death have long been a matter of speculation – she appears to have been addicted to Laudanum since 1860, and she was apparently in grief as a result of a miscarriage. Their relationship was volatile, and this was probably a contributing factor in her death. Prostrate with grief at Siddal’s funeral, in a grand romantic gesture, Rossetti placed the only complete manuscript of his unpublished poems in her coffin. Seven years later, he had them retrieved. They formed the nexus of his great 1870 collection, Poems.

Two Paintings by Elizabeth Siddal

Self-Portrait (1853 -1854)

Elizabeth Siddal, Clerk Saunders (1857)

Two early Paintings by Holman Hunt and Millais that used Siddal as a Model

William Holman Hunt, “A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids” (1850)

John Everett Millais, “Ophelia” (1862)

Selected Dante Gabriel Rossetti drawings and paintings that used Siddal as a model

An early Rossetti drawing of Siddal

An 1854 Drawing

Painting of Siddal (unfinished) (1854 -65)

“Beata Beatrix” (1854 -67)

Another Important Model (and Lover): Fanny Cornforth (1824 -1906) In 1856, Fanny Cornforth reportedly first attracted Rossetti’s attention at Cremhorne Gardens by throwing peanuts at him (he had been staring at her). Cornforth, a working-class woman who had been a part-time prostitute, was quickly installed in Rossetti’s house at Cheyne Walk as his mistress and housekeeper. This was during a mid -1850 s “lull” in Rossetti’s relationship with Siddal. This relationship did not meet the approval of many of the painter’s friends. Cornforth was noisy, hearty, “earthy, ” and spoke in a broad cockney dialect. It is notable that Rossetti’s brother William, who quite obviously knew her well, did not mention Fanny in any of his copious writings about his famous brother, yet photographic evidence confirms that they knew each other. It would be wrong to assume, however, that this hostility was shared by all of D. G. Rossetti’s family and friends.

Cornforth was upset when Rossetti finally married Siddal in 1860, after Siddal had become ill. Cornforth left Rossetti’s home and married another man soon after, but he died quickly. After Siddal died in 1860, Cornforth and Rossetti reunited and Cornforth became Rossetti’s main model (and his housekeeper, again) until 1867, when his next great obsession, Jane Burden Morris, began to dominate his art and life. Cornforth was unusual among Rossetti models for her blond(ish) hair, which made her seem “lower” than the brunette beauty that he typically idealized.

Fanny Cornforth (1868)

“Bocca Baciata” (featuring Cornforth)

“Found” (1854) – w/Cornforth

“La Bionda del Balcone” (1854)

Rossetti’s final muse: Jane Burden, later Jane Burden Morris (1839 -1914) In 1868, Rossetti convinced the wife of his friend William Morris, Jane Burden Morris, to sit for a series of paintings, and his portraits of her are usually considered his most striking artistic work. His brother W. M. Rossetti said of her appearance, “in the extraordinarily impressive – the profound abstract – type of beauty of Mrs. Morris, he found an ideal more entirely responsive than any other to his aspiration in art. ” W. M. Rossetti called her “tragic, mystic, calm, beautiful & gracious-- a face for a sculptor & a face for a painter. ” She was notable for her dark, swan-necked, elegant appearance. By 1869, they had begun an intense affair, with the tacit understanding of her husband, William Morris. They both suffered poor health through the 1870 s, and this became a subject of their correspondence. They lived together briefly while William Morris was traveling in Iceland in 1871, but the affair ended soon afterward. Jane Burden Morris remained an ideal in Rossetti’s art and writing.

Sketch of Jane Morris (1865)

Drawing of Jane Morris (1860)

“Reverie” (1868)

“La Pia de’ Tolomei” (1858 -70)

“Sancta Lilias” (1874)

“Astarte Syriaca” (1877)

“The Blessed Damozel” (1875 -78)

“Pandora” (1879)

Jane Morris, July 1865 Photograph (photographer unknown)

Jane Morris, July 1865 photograph (photographer unkown)

On the later history of Pre-Raphaelitism

The BROTHERHOOD (a group originally consisting of 7 men) only lasted as a semi-coherent group of artists and artistic principles until 1853. The members’ interests inevitably diverged, though William Holman Hunt remained a dedicated proponent of Pre. Raphaelite techniques for the rest of his career. The group was revitalized soon after, though, with the incursion of new figures, including Algernon Charles Swinburne, Edwin Burne. Jones, and William Morris. Not all of these men would identify themselves as “Pre-Raphaelite” though – it was a loose connection of friends and artists, marked by their association with D. G. Rossetti. What was sometimes called “Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism, ” the second flowering of Pre-Raphaelite-influenced art and literature, began in 1856, when Morris and Burne-Jones shared a flat together at Oxford and started The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine. Rossetti became their friend and mentor, and selected them later that year to work on a mural project at the Oxford Union.

On D. G. Rossetti’s final days (Adapted from the Victorian Web) Simeon Solomon, Portrait of D. G. Rossetti (ca. 1864)

In the late 1860 s, Rossetti began to suffer from headaches and weakened eyesight, and began to take chloral mixed with whiskey to cure insomnia. He soon became addicted to the mixture. Robert Buchanan's attack on Rossetti and Swinburne in his essay "The Fleshly School of Poetry" (1871) depressed Rossetti further. In the summer of 1872 he suffered a mental breakdown, complete with hallucinations and accusing voices. He was taken to Scotland, where he attempted suicide, but gradually recovered, and within a few months was able to paint again. His health continued to deteriorate slowly (he was still taking chloral), but did not much interfere with his work. He died of kidney failure on April 9, 1882.

Artworks by and about Pre-Raphaelite Circle members

Edward Burne Jones (1833 -98), “Atlas Turned to Stone”

Edward Burne-Jones, “The Wheel of Fortune” (1873)

D. G. Rossetti’s portrait of Christina Rossetti (1877)

William Morris (1834 -96), “The Garden of Delight”

William Morris, “Guinevere” (1857) – model is a young Jane Burden

Portrait of Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1861

Swinburne caricature by Carlo Pelligrini (1874)

In 1922, the caricaturist and writer Max Beerbohm looked back on the history of the Pre-Raphaelites and immortalized them in a set of seventeen drawings, Rossetti and His Circle (London: William Heinemann, 1922). Here are some selected drawings:

“Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in his back garden”

“Algernon Swinburne Taking his great new friend Gosse to see Gabriel Rossetti”

“Rossetti’s Courtship [of Elizabeth Siddal]”

“Oh Very Pleased to Meet You, Mr. Ruskin, I’m Sure. ” [Ruskin meets Fanny Cornforth, with Rossetti in the middle]

TO SUM UP: The history of the Pre-Raphaelites, as we’ve seen, is quite complicated, and we’ve only skimmed the surface here. There’s an entire journal devoted to the study of the group, The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies. Scholarship abounds on how the group members influenced each other, and on such subjects as Pre-Raphaelite furniture making, sculpture, and photography. Our central concern is the significance of Pre-Raphaelite art and aesthetic concepts for the poetry of D. G. Rossetti and “Rossetti circle” figures such as Christina Rossetti. The nature and the extent of the relationship between the art and the poetry is still a matter of much debate.

And Now, For Something Completely Different:

A wee introduction to some important characteristics of Rossetti’s poetry

So as to lead us into a fulfilling discussion of the stuff he neither drew, sketched, nor painted

Some General Points about D. G. Rossetti’s Poetry: • He produced it irregularly throughout most of his early life, writing in short spurts, until 1869, when he began to gather and revise his earlier, unpublished poems, including ones drawn from Jane Burden Morris’s grave. In 1870 he released the volume that contains most of his best-known work, Poems included an early version of the long sonnet sequence The House of Life, which he published complete in 1871. Before 1870, Rossetti was wellknown as a painter. By the time he died, he was already being viewed as a master in both the pictorial and literary arts. · Many of D. G. Rossetti’s finest and most-well-known poems are about art production. Poetry is interestingly conflated with painting in his writing, as we’ll see today. David Riede, in his essay “The Pre-Raphaelite School, ” isolates an “incestuous” quality in Rossetti’s poetry, for it is centrally poetry about poetry and artistic production in general, in more insistent ways even than Robert Browning.

· Much of Rossetti’s work addresses the representation of female beauty. There is a constant tension in his work between women’s representational possibilities as disembodied spirit and their very real and sexually formidable bodies. Much of Rossetti’s work attempts to put the fleshly and the spiritual into productive counterpoint. He came under severe criticism for the explicit eroticism of his work from Robert Buchanan and others. Some General Characteristics of His Poetry · His early work, as Reade notes, was considered “Art-Catholic” in nature; that is, it uses imagery from Anglo-Catholic theology for aesthetic purposes. • Anglo-Catholics were part of a “High Church” Anglican Protestant movement from the 1830 s onward. Led at first by John Newman and other Oxford intellectuals, they attempted to reincorporate some aspects of Roman Catholic theology and practice into the Anglican church. They were interested in emphasizing, among other things, the ceremonial function of religion.

• Several of the most prominent early Anglo-Catholics eventually converted to Roman Catholicism. Christina Rossetti, a prominent Anglo-Catholic, never did. · There is a sense in all of his poetry of the immanence and mystery of all creation, but the specifics of that mystery are often unclear. The very fact that meaning may be present, on the edge of human consciousness, is often the point of emphasis. · Rossetti’s poetry is, of course, deeply pictorial. In poems such as The Blessed Damozel, the narrator pays a remarkable amount of attention to physical details and their arrangement. In fact, some of his work is ekphrastic – i. e. , poetry that describes the particulars of a work of pictorial art such as a painting. Authors such as William Morris in turn wrote ekphrastic poems about Rossetti’s works. · In Rossetti’s later poetry (late 1860 s onward), women are

represented in increasingly more sensual ways, and sensuality becomes the focus of his poetry and his painting. From the beginning, women had represented purity, art, the soul. They are never meaning-producers, though — they are not art makers; this is a fact that both Christina Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal respond to in their poetry. · As a poet, he produced relatively little compared to his contemporaries like Swinburne and Morris, but the work he did produce is remarkably powerful. Jerome Mc. Gann, a leading 19 th century literary scholar, has refocused critical attention on D. G. Rossetti’s work in his 2000 book Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Game that Must Be Lost. • Rossetti is perhaps best remembered as an innovator in… 1) His range of subjects – especially his interest in the pain and pleasure of sexual obsession and in“scandalous” subjects such as

2) His vigorous use of forms – particularly the ballad form (The Blessed Damozel), the sonnet sequence (The House of Life), and ekphrastic poetry. • In his own lifetime and later, he’s often been regarded as an INFLUENCE – an indispensable example for later male writers and friends such as Swinburne, Walter Pater, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Oscar Wilde. For these and a host of other writers, Rossetti stood as a figure who sought escape from definitions of art as simply a MORAL practice. They, like him, sought refuge in formal innovation and an engagement with aesthetic concerns, metaphysical uncertainty, sexual explicitness and sexual anxiety.

And Finally,

This is a superb internet resource on D. G. Rossetti: http: //www. rossettiarchive. org/