Dante Gabriel  Rossetti

Poet and painter, born in London, UK, the son of Gabriele Rossetti. He trained at the Royal Academy in London, and helped to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (c.1850), which aimed to return to pre-Renaissance art forms involving vivid colour and detail. His early work was on religious themes, such as ‘The Annunciation’ (1850, Tate, London); his later manner became more secular, and more ornate in style. The death of his wife in 1862, and adverse criticism of his poetry, turned him into a recluse, but Ballads and Sonnets (1881) contains some of his best work.