Educated at the Sass's Academy art school and the Royal Academy Antique school, Rossetti was a talented, if not enthusiastic, student. A gifted artist, he was equally gifted as a poet. He left school in 1848 to study art under Ford Maddox Brown and, together with six other young artists, established a secret society called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The aim of the society was to seek a return to the pre-Renaissance style of painting. In 1849, Rossetti exhibited his first major painting, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, for which he used his sister Christina as model for the Virgin and his mother as St. Anne. In 1850, he published the poem The Blessed Damozel, which won critical acclaim. Meanwhile, the society continued to attract initiates such as Swinburne and William Morris. Rossetti married in 1860, but his wife died in 1862 leaving him depressed. He began to drink heavily and became more reclusive. Eye problems caused him to forego painting temporarily and he devoted more time to poetry. In 1870, he published Poems which was very popular and gave him some much needed financial stability. During the 1870's, Rossetti was involved in controversy regarding his reply to a critic and again took to drink and drugs. He moved in with William Morris until 1874. By 1879, his addiction to chloral hydrate and laudanum was drastically affecting his work and by 1880 his final major painting The Day Dream appeared. In 1881, he published Ballads and Sonnets which included House of Life. In December of that year he suffered a stroke and by April of 1882 he succumbed. Rossetti's other publications include My Sister's Sleep (1850) and Hand and Soul. |
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