Dante Gabriel Rossetti

With its luxurious design and captivating text, this book brings to life a charming, extravagantly talented artist.

One of Victorian England's most charismatic characters, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) painted and wrote with equal passion. He was similarly passionate in his personal life: his ethereal artist-wife, his earthy blond mistress, and the ravishing Jane Morris are all immortalized in his voluptuous images. The melodrama of Rossetti's lifedarkened by rumors of suicide, adultery, and addictionhas often overshadowed his striking accomplishments as a painter.

This evocative volume vividly illuminates Rossetti's career, from his early achievements as a founder of the tremendously influential Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, through his involvement with William Morris's revolutionary design firm, to the grandly unorthodox images of his final years. Rossetti's prodigious art encompassed the meticulously detailed canvases of his early years, the jewellike brilliance of his medieval tableaux, and the sensuously alluring women of his late paintings.

The astute text provides, at long last, a clear and candid account of the artist that carefully untangles fact from myth. Reminiscences from the artist's great-grandniece Helen Guglielmini provide an engaging glimpse of life with the Rossettis. Beautifully designed with luscious reproductions, telling details, and graceful ornamentation, this is the first lavishly illustrated monograph devoted to Rossetti.

265 illustrations, 140 in full color