ROSSETTI, DANTE GABRIEL

born May 12, 1828, London, Eng. died April 9, 1882, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent original name Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti English painter and poet who helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters treating religious, moral, and medieval subjects in a nonacademic manner. Dante Gabriel was the most illustrious member of the Rossetti family. Additional reading Evelyn Waugh, Rossetti: His Life and Works (1928, reprinted 1978), gave an unsympathetic view of him; it was followed by the overt hostility of Violet Hunt, The Wife of Rossetti (1932). Against this prejudice the daughter of W.M. Rossetti came to her uncle's defense: Helen Rossetti Angeli, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Friends and Enemies (1949, reprinted 1977). Oswald Doughty, A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 2nd ed. (1960), is an effort to give overall proportion. More recent biographical works are Brian Dobbs and Judy Dobbs, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Alien Victorian (1977); and Alicia Craig Faxon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1989). Reminiscences also illuminate different phases of Rossetti's career: Henry Treffry Dunn, Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and His Circle (Cheyne Walk Life) (1904, reissued 1971), describes the period when the author was Rossetti's assistant; and Hall Caine, Recollections of Rossetti (1928, reprinted 1973), describes the reclusive last years. Of primary importance for the study of Rossetti's art is Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (18281882): A Catalogue Raisonn, 2 vol. (1971). Another standard work is H.C. Marillier, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 3rd ed. abridged and rev. (1904). Further assessments of his achievements are found in Florence Saunders Boos, The Poetry of Dante G. Rossetti: A Critical Reading and Source Study (1976); Joan Rees, The Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Modes of Self-Expression (1981); David G. Riede, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Limits of Victorian Vision (1983); and David G. Riede (ed.), Critical Essays on Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1992), which includes several contemporary responses to his poetry as well as more modern critiques.