William Michael Rossetti

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William Michael Rossetti photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron (1865)

William Michael Rossetti (born September 25, 1829 in London , † February 5, 1919 there ) was a British writer and art critic . He was also one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelites .

Life

Ford Madox Brown: Portrait of William Michael Rossetti in the lamplight, oil on wood (1856)

Rossetti grew up as the third of four very gifted children Maria Francesca, Dante Gabriel and Christina Georgina in an extraordinary family on Charlotte Street, near Regent's Park . His father, Gabriele Rossetti (1783-1854), was a poet and scientist , but earned his salary as an Italian teacher. His mother, Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, daughter of Gaetano Polidori and sister of John Polidori , was also a teacher . His father taught Italian language and literature at King's College .

One year younger than his brother Dante, they did a lot together, including painting and writing poetry. They attended the same class at King's College day school until 1841 when Dante Gabriel Rossetti left college to paint. William stayed until February 1845 when his father's blindness and deteriorating health forced him to contribute to the family's support. His wish to become a doctor one day had failed. At the age of 16, he began working as a tax clerk at the Excise (later Inland Revenue) Office with £ 80 a year, but this did not prevent him from continuing to write poetry, and in October 1848 he was the first Rossetti to write his poem In the Hill Shadow in Athenaeum has been published and reprinted in Beautiful Poetry as well as Gems of National Poetry . But more importantly, he encouraged Christina Rosetti to publish her sonnets because she was the best of the "troupe".

In the autumn of 1848, John Everett Millais founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in his London studio in order to articulate a more contemporary artistic representation in protest against the Royal Academy of Arts . This community included the painters William Holman Hunt , the brothers Dante Gabriel and William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson , the sculptor Thomas Woolner and the art writer Frederic George Stephens . Sympathizing members included William Dyce , Arthur Hughes , Edward Burne-Jones, and Ford Madox Brown , who was never a member. In literary terms , Rossetti recorded her thoughts in poems and essays in The Germ magazine from 1848 to 1850. He was their chosen editor and biographer. That included finding material to fill in the gaps, negotiating costs, and writing the sonnet for the first page.

Calder Campbell, who worked on the second issue of The Germ , showed a copy to Sergeant Edward William Cox, a lawyer who edited some newspapers. He liked this and asked William to work as an art critic for the Critic - but without pay. He only did so until November 1850, when Frederic G. Stephens succeeded him in this post. Ford Madox Brown suggested him for a paid position for the Spectator , which he would hold until 1878. He also wrote for Fraser's Magazine and The Academy from 1873 to 1878 from 1861 to 1865 .

In the time before the Pre-Raphelites, after his work, he met Dante at Ford Maddox Brown's "Life School" and he hoped that his brother would one day become a painter. It was not until 1857 that he attended John Ruskin's class at Working Men's College for a few months .

Williams' undivided attention to detail was directed to the Pre-ruffelites and their rendering of nature. His approach was based on close observations of the images and first-hand examination of texts. That gave him confidence in his own tastes and opinions - even as a young man. His critical impersonality was not flattering. He was always trying to get an unbiased opinion, especially when writing about pictures from his circle of friends.

William Michael Rossetti, photographed 1905

At the suggestion of publisher Macmillan, William published a review of the 1861–64 Summer Exhibitions in 1864, a collection of his weekly articles on the Pre-Ruffelites published in Spectator in 1851, as well as a discussion of British Sculptors in 1861 and Esoteric Japanese Woodcuts in 1863. This allowed him to present his view of contemporary art - always in his special area of ​​interest. Using the exhibitions as a stepping stone, he wrote about the state of British art today and the direction it should take. He admits that his own mind has changed over the 16 years he has been in the field. His priority in viewing a painting had shifted from content to style. According to James Abbott McNeill Whistler , he had discovered an eye for innovative aesthetics, decorative art, who painted "art for art's sake". He was one of Whistler's earliest admirers. In 1867 he and his brother resigned from the Burlington Fine Arts Club in protest against Whistler's eviction. In 1878 he testified in favor of Whistler at the Ruskin trial.

He had admired Shelley since his youth and was delighted that he was commissioned by Edward Moxon & Co. to re-publish Shelley's works. Between 1870 and 1873 he was for Moxon's series "Popular Poets" and "Lives of some Famous Poets". William's friendship with Edward Trelawny gave him access to interesting material about Lord Byron and Shelley, so that in 1870 he published a two-volume exegesis. He also became a founding member of the Shelley Society.

In 1868 he introduced the poems of the American Walt Whitman to British readers. Special joy made him the Poems and Ballads of Algernon Charles Swinburne to defend, was attacked when the press about this.

In 1876, Willams began contributing to the Encyclopedia Britannica , edited by Mr. Spencer Baines, mainly, but not exclusively, on Italian masters. That was a task that dragged on over several years. In 1905 he revised it for the new edition. That was not easy, because other authors had e.g. B. written articles about Raffael or Michelangelo .

He was obsessed with the Democratic Sonnets , which he wrote in 1881. His brother Dante was alarmed by the revolutionary thoughts, so that William did not publish this book until 1907.

He gained recognition from his contemporaries such as Thomas Woolner, George du Maurier , John Ruskin and John Brett . From his appointment as art critic of the Spectator in 1850 to 1878, he wrote around 400 art reviews for English and American magazines.

William Michael Rossetti retired from the Inland Revenue Office in 1894. After that, however, worked as an advisor for estate tax until 1903.

Eventually he set about compiling and editing the letters and poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, their father and the PRB, a work of inestimable value for posterity.

In 1906 he published his memoirs in two volumes under the title Some Reminiscences . During his lifetime, William was in contact with some of the most famous people of the Victorian era, as recorded in Some Reminiscences .

In 1874 William Rossetti married the art student Lucy Madox Brown (1843-1894), the eldest daughter of Ford Madox Brown, in London . They had five children: Olivia, Gabriel Arthur, Helen, Mary and Michael, the latter of whom died in childhood.

  • Portrait of John Everett Millais , 1849 by WMR

  • Portrait of John Everett Millais 1853 by WMR

  • The young mother , from WMR around 1857

  • Wombat sketch by Rossetti, 1869 by WMR

  • Meeting of the Pre-Raphaelites in 1848

  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1853 by William Holman Hunt

  • William Michael drawn by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1848

Works (incomplete)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pre-Raphaelitism Chapter V in: Fine Art, Chiefly Contemporary
  2. ↑ Edward William Cox
  3. ^ Working Men's College
  4. ^ The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler
  5. ↑ Edward Moxon homepage ( Memento from September 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Note-book of the Shelley society. Edited by the Honorary Secretaries. Published for the Shelley Society 1888

literature

  • William Michael Rossetti at Project Gutenberg
  • Wilhelm Justus: William Michael Rossetti among the Pre-Raphaelites , Bochum-Langendreer (1934)
  • Angela Thirlwell: William and Lucy: The Other Rossettis , Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2003, ISBN 0-300-10200-3 .
  • Julie L'Enfant: William Rossetti's Art Criticism: The Search for Truth in Victorian Art , University Press of America ISBN 0-7618-1290-3 .
  • Dinah Roe: The Rossettis in Wonderland. A Victorian Family History , House Publishing, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-907822-01-8 .

Web links

Commons : William Michael Rossetti  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Rossetti, William Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer and art critic
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1919
Place of death London