ROSSETTI: Painter and Poet

ROSSETTI: Painter and Poet
J. B. BULLEN Book Number: 74432 Product format: Hardback

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) (actually Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, but he put the Dante first in honour of great Italian medieval poet) is the most intriguing and flamboyant figure in 19th century British art, exerting an influence upon High Victorian culture that was immense and disturbing. His moody Italian father, Gabriele, and bright, efficient Anglican mother Frances brought him and his brother and sisters up in a London house surrounded by melancholy political exiles, a moribund reality from which he escaped by means of painting and writing. Although he was outwardly warm and demonstrative and adored by women, he had inherited his father's depression and was paranoid about criticism and haunted by guilt. He inspired the first Pre-Raphaelite generation in 1849 as an act of subversion against the Royal Academy, and the second generation ten years later. His poetry acted as a stimulus to a wave of writers, and his bohemian lifestyle, swarthy and unkempt appearance and defiance of the manners and morality of the British middle class created a notoriety and attraction that brought him a great many adoring acolytes. Sexual desire was the dominant theme of his art. His exquisitely rendered paintings of heart-stoppingly alluring women and subtly erotic verse concerning the courtship, love, adoration and loss of women was echoed in his own life, mythologizing his lovers so that they became the fictional heroines of his art - in so doing he changed their lives, sometimes for the better, sometimes destroying them. In this immense tome Professor Bullen reveals the subtle interplay between life and art, painting, drawing and poetry and how Rossetti projected his anxieties, pleasures and needs. The level and quality of illustration is second to none. Almost 200 illus, all in their original luminous hues and many reproduced full page (10¼"×12¼") or bigger combine with Bullen's expert narrative to trace the development of Rossetti's painting and poetry within the context of his tumultuous life and times. A superlative art book published 2011 by Frances Lincoln.
Published price: £35
Bibliophile price: £15.00