The Rossetti siblings and those linked to them stunned Victorian Britain with their poetry, art, and unconventional lifestyles. An atypical family for the time, the children, born to an Italian political exile and governess, were artistic and literary prodigies. Dante Gabriel, along with his siblings, Christina and William, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; a revolutionary art movement littered with scandal and characterised by its richness of form. Almost 150 years later, the Tate has collated their works in a memorable experience, if only for its sheer scale.
Perhaps best known of her siblings, poet Christina Rossetti’s work opens the exhibition, projected on the wall. Her poems speak of love in many voices, and while not an active participant in the Brotherhood, she was intimately connected to it through her writing and friendships. Other stanzas dot the room: her controversial poem ‘Goblin Market’ with its message of feminist salvation reminds us of how the Rossettis led a progressive counterculture of art, love, and life itself.
Despite the Tate’s best attempts to feature innovative female artists, it is decidedly Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s work which dominates here in his largest exhibition feature for 20 years. The Pre-Raphaelites moved away from the rigidity of artwork at the time, and rather than using professional models, used working-class beauties as their muses. Flowing red hair, full lips, and emerald eyes dominate Dante’s work – the richness of colour doesn’t disappoint, but it’s as if, poetically put once by Christina, ‘one face looks out from all his canvases.’
One of those muses was Elizabeth Siddal – Dante’s long term lover and eventual wife, first ‘scouted’ working in a hat shop. She most famously modelled for John Everett Millais’ ‘Ophelia,’ the definitive depiction of Shakespeare’s tragic heroine moments before drowning. But she wasn’t just a passive source of inspiration – Elizabeth, or Lizzie, as she was known, was an artist in her own right, and almost entirely self-taught. This is the most comprehensive exhibition of her work for 30 years, and her first ever in a major institution, featuring rare surviving watercolours and important drawings. The Tate aims to dispel the myth of Siddal as the melancholy wife who met her end through a laudanum overdose, and the dreamy quality of her work shines here.
On this topic, visitor Jess Reeves commented, “The exhibition was beautiful, and I especially liked seeing the works of Elizabeth Siddal, a figure I had previously only known as an artist’s wife.” She also noted that “It gave a lot of depth to an overlooked influence on the Pre-Raphaelite movement” – it seems Siddal’s new legacy is in the making.
The Rossettis at Tate Britain runs until 24 September, 2023.
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