#william rossetti

[mrdirtybear]

'William Michael Rossetti' as painted in 1909 by English print-maker, painter, draughtsman, author, and lecturer on art, William Rothenstein (1872-1945).

[lizardgoats]

The Pre-Raphelite Brotherhood was founded that year [1848] by a a group of young men who were determined 'ever to do battle against the frivolous art of the day.' Hunt and Millais were joined by the 'mysterious and un-English' Gabriel Rossetti, a poet from a brilliant Anglo-Italian family, who suggested they should confine themselves to the magic number seven and use a password. The other members were Fred Stephens and James Collinson, painters; Thomas Woolner, a sculptor, and Rosetti's brother William, who wrote art criticism in his spare time and was a very fine character., which Gabriel was not. They were all aged between nineteen and twenty-two. Other painters who did not join the secret seven (Ford Madox Brown, Charles Collins, Walter Deverell, Arthur Hughes) were also loosely called Pre-Raphelites. The group would last only for a short time and its members had quite different styles. The strongest bonds were between the two Rosettis, as was natural, and between Millais and Hunt. What they had in common was impatience with the old men who ran the Academy, and the fact that they all 'belonged to the middle or lower-middle class of society...Of any access to the "upper classes" through family ties there was not a trace.'

Effie: A Victorian Scandal - From Ruskin’s Wife to Millais’s Muse, by Merryn Williams

[lizardgoats]

At this time he appeared to have everything—a devoted family, an astonishing talent, a charming personality and striking good looks. According to William Rossetti, 'Millais was a very handsome, or more strictly, a beautiful youth; his face came nearer to the type which we term angelic than perhaps any other male visage that I have seen.' But, unlike some charming people, he was kind-hearted and responsible. Anthony Trollope would write, 'To see him has always been a pleasure. His voice has been a sweet sound in my ears...These words, should he ever see them, will come to him from the grave, and will tell him of my regard—as one living man never tells another.'

Effie: A Victorian Scandal - From Ruskin’s Wife to Millais’s Muse, by Merryn Williams

[coffinflop]

I then said: "Is it my Uncle John?"--Yes. I asked for the surname, by the alphabet, but could not get it. Then: Is it an English surname?--No.--Foreign?--Yes.--Spanish, German, etc., etc., Italian?--Yes.--Will you tell me truly how you died?--Yes.--How?--Killed.--Who killed you?--I.--There was a celebrated poet with whom you were connected: what was his name?--Bro. This was twice repeated, or something close to it the second time. At a third attempt, "Byron."--There was a certain book you wrote, attributed to Byron: can you give me its title?--Yes.--I tried to get this title [The Vampyre] several times, but wholly failed.--Are you happy?--Two raps, meaning not exactly.

William Rossetti's seance diary, November 25, 1865

about contacting his maternal uncle, John William Polidori

that's,,,really sad actually

[carroll-cameron-co]

The Rossetti Family 7th October 1863 by Lewis Carroll (2nd photo, from left) Christina Georgina, Dante Gabriel, Frances, William Michael and Maria Francesca