An Inventory of His Art Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Creator:
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882
Title:
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Art
Collection
Dates:
circa 1860s-1880s
Extent:
4 framed items, 1 box, 1 sculpture
Abstract:
The Dante Gabriel Rossetti Art Collection
consists of pastel and chalk drawings, ink drawings, and a plaster death mask of
Rossetti.
Call Number:
Art Collection AR-00230
Language:
English
Access:
Open for research. Please note that a minimum of 24 hours notice is required to pull
art
materials to the Ransom Center's Reading and Viewing Room. Some materials may be restricted
from viewing. To make an appointment or to reserve Art Collection materials, please
contact
the Center's staff at art@hrc.utexas.edu. Researchers must create an online Research
Account
and agree to the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials.
Use Policies:
Ransom Center collections may contain material with sensitive or confidential information
that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers
are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable
living
individuals represented in the collections without the consent of those individuals
may have
legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy
may
arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be
deemed
highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Ransom Center and The University
of
Texas at Austin assume no responsibility.
Restrictions on Use:
Authorization for publication is given on behalf of the University of Texas as the
owner of
the collection and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright
holder
which must be obtained by the researcher. For more information please see the Ransom
Centers' Open Access and Use Policies.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Art Collection (AR-00230). Harry Ransom Center, The University
of
Texas at Austin.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet and painter, born in London in 1828, the
son of
a professor of Italian. Rossetti was a precocious, charismatic, but ill-disciplined
student.
He studied at King's College School, Henry Sass's Drawing Academy in Bloomsbury (starting
in
1841), and finally at the Antique School of the Royal Academy, from 1845 to 1848,
which he
left for a brief period of study under Ford Madox Brown. Barely five months later,
Rossetti
left Brown and established himself in the studio of William Holman Hunt, also a Royal
Academy student. Writing absorbed much of Rossetti's time, including translations
of Dante,
whose work was a lifelong inspiration.
With Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, Rossetti formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
in September 1848. The group derived its name from a desire to revert to a tradition
of
simplicity and realism that was found in early Italian art; they aimed to achieve
a high
degree of fidelity in reproducing nature and detail. Rossetti devised the Brotherhood's
magazine, The Germ, chiefly devoted to the nature of art,
which lasted only four issues. The original Brotherhood also ceased to exist by 1852,
though
their style lived on.
In 1850, Rossetti painted his first subject from the works of Dante. Rossetti's enthusiasm
for Dante, Robert Browning's poetry, Arthurian romance, biblical subjects, and archaic
legends and medieval lore is also reflected in his imaginative watercolors of the
1850s.
Rossetti's interest in Arthurian subjects was fuelled by his mentorship of William
Morris
and Edward Burne-Jones, who joined him in decorating the Oxford Union in 1857. As
a member
of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co., Rossetti executed designs for stained glass.
While
he did not favor book illustration, his designs during this period also broadened
his
artistic audience.
In 1859, Rossetti abandoned Pre-Raphaelite principles to paint Bocca
baciata, a bust portrait of his mistress Fanny Cornforth, which became a prototype
for many of his popular later paintings featuring beautiful women in exotic surroundings
under fanciful titles. After the suicide of his wife and pupil Elizabeth Siddal in
1862, he
lived in great style, with a menagerie of animals, in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. From 1868
until
the mid-1870s, Rossetti conducted an affair with Jane Burden, the wife of William
Morris,
which, along with harsh criticism of his poetry, may have contributed to Rossetti's
1872
suicide attempt and subsequent depression and paranoia. Jane Morris remained his principal
muse until his death in 1882.
Sources:
Rodgers, David. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel.The Oxford Companion to
Western Art, http://www.oxfordartonline.com (accessed 27 April 2010).
Surtees, Virginia. Rossetti: (1) Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Grove Art
Online , http://www.oxfordartonline.com (accessed 13 April 2010).
Scope and Contents
The Dante Gabriel Rossetti Art Collection consists of pastel drawings, ink drawings,
and a
plaster death mask of Rossetti by Brucciani. Some of the pieces are studies for later
works,
including the drawings for stained glass panels of the story of St. George and the
Dragon,
executed by Morris & Co. All of the works date to the late 1800s. The Collection is
divided into two series, I. Works by Rossetti and II. Works by Others. The works are
listed
by medium and chronologically by date. Titles are taken from Virginia Surtees's The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): a
catalogue raisonné, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. Additional descriptions may
follow titles to further elucidate.
Related Material
The Ransom Center holds manuscripts and letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Manuscript
Collection MS-3624), as well as those of his sister, Christina Georgina Rossetti (Manuscript
Collection MS-3623). Both of these collections have been digitized and are available
to view
online in the Ransom Center's Digital Collections. The Center also has in its holdings
a
book of verse by Rossetti's sister, Christina Rossetti (Verses. London: Privately printed, 1847) with original illustrations drawn into
the book in pencil by her brother.
