In 1860 Rossetti married Elisabeth E. Siddal, who was herself a painter of merit. Mrs Rossetti, whose health was delicate, delivered a stillborn child in 1861 and died the following year from an overdose of laudanum.
Her death overwhelmed Rossetti with sadness, and he buried the manuscript of his poems with her. It was not until 1869 that he disinterred the manuscript, which he published the following year. For the rest of his life, he pursued poetry and painting. Around 1868 he began experiencing insomnia, which deeply disturbed his social life. His circle of friends shrank to only a close few, and he spent much time with William Morris in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire. In 1881 he published Ballads and Sonnets, and he also left us his translation of Dante’s Vita Nueva. In the last years of his life he seemed completely unaware of his growing fame. Unable to sleep without the help of chloral hydrate, he died on 9th April 1882 following health complications.
Both directly with the Pre-Raphaelites and indirectly through the Arts and Crafts movement, Rossetti had considerable influence on numerous areas and left his mark on the poetic technique of his day. Combining Italian sensuality and love of form with the dreamy imagination of more northerly regions, the unique universe of this artist still fascinates us today through his writings and paintings.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Dantis Amor, 1860.
Oil on mahogany, 74.9 x 81.3 cm.
Tate Gallery, London.
Ford Madox Brown,
Chaucer at the Court of Edward III , 1847-1851.
Oil on canvas, 372 x 296 cm.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Ford Madox Brown, 1852.
Pencil, 17.1 x 11.4 cm.
National Portrait Gallery, London.
Ford Madox Brown
(Calais, 1821 - London, 1893)
Ford Madox Brown’s father was a retired navy purser and his mother’s family came from Kent. His paternal grandfather was the Scottish doctor John Brown, who established the “Bruonian” theory of medicine. Ford Madox Brown had no brothers or sisters. He spent his youth shuttling between England and the Continent, and at the age of six showed a strong inclination for drawing and painting. In 1835 he took classes at Bruges from a student of David, Gregorius, but the fundamental part of his education began in 1837, under Baron Wappers, who was considered a great authority in Antwerp. From his earliest years, Brown showed remarkable strength in drawing and painting, as evidenced by a portrait of his father, completed when the boy was fourteen years old. Orphaned at nineteen, Brown lived modestly but nonetheless travelled around Europe. In 1841 he married his cousin Elizabeth Bomley and left for London in 1844. Then in 1845-1846 he explored Rome, where he admired the work of the Nazarenes, a small group of nineteenth-century young German painters who held the opinion that art should serve a moral or religious purpose. They also advocated a return to the spirit of the Middle Ages.
In 1846 Brown moved to London where his wife succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving one daughter, Lucy, who married William M. Rossetti in 1874. After a short time as a widower, Brown took Emma Hill as his second wife. She posed for many of his paintings. In 1848 Brown was contacted by Rossetti and agreed to give him lessons. Through Rossetti, Brown became associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. He shared some of their principles, such as that of remaining true to nature, and though he was sometimes considered to be their inspiration, he refused to join the group. Brown’s art is characterised by profoundly theatrical historic scenes and reinforced by a meticulous attention to detail. For example, in his painting Chaucer at the Court of Edward III, begun in Rome in 1845 and completed in London in 1848, one can spot in the crowd certain members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Landscapes like An English Autumn Afternoon, demonstrate this. At the beginning of his career, he simply used landscapes as backgrounds, as the Pre-Raphaelites did, but he later painted them for their own merit. In his landscapes, nature is not glorified but described as it is, and Ruskin reproached him for this. Brown also had a passion for contemporary subjects; “Take your Son, Sir” he addresses the same theme of prostitution as Rossetti did in Found. In Work, he treats the subject of the new industrialised society and glorifies the progress of modern England. Finally, in The Last of England, he explores the economic emigration that he himself considered when his career was at a low point. This painting was inspired by the departure of the Pre-Raphaelite sculptor Thomas Woolner. In 1865, independently of the Royal Academy, he organised an exhibition of his works in London around Work. Besides his work as a painter, Brown also created designs for stained glass, and until 1874 he was a member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., a design firm founded by William Morris. He also painted many portraits and even self-portraits, and he occasionally gave lectures. In 1878, he devoted himself to decorating Manchester City Hall.
Brown was never a highly remunerated or popular artist. For half his life he had difficulties with money, and even when his situation improved he was never truly well off. Though as a young man he seemed to have a certain future as a successful painter, his life took another direction after some disappointments and difficulties. From 1868 he suffered from gout, and he died after an attack of apoplexy.
Ford Madox Brown,
“Take your son, sir”, c. 1851-1892.
Oil on canvas, 70.5 x 38.1 cm.
Tate Britain, London.
Ford Madox Brown,
Work, 1852-1865.
Oil on canvas, 137 x 197.3 cm.
Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester.
Arthur Hughes,
The Long Engagement, 1859.
Oil on canvas, 107 x 53.3 cm.
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham.
