Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator and painter who died in 1882. I don't know a tremendous amount about his work, but I do know one strange story that I thought I would pass on.
Rossetti married one of his models, Elizabeth Siddal. After a stillbirth, Siddal died of an apparent overdose of opium (laudanum) in 1862. Rosetti was so distraught by his wife's death that he put the only copy of a journal containing all of his unpublished poems in her coffin. Wait, there's more. In 1869, seven years after her death, he became obsessed with retrieving his old poems. You might guess where this is going. He had his wife's body exhumed in order to get his journal back. Wow!
Elizabeth Siddal was the model used for this painting, which was finally completed about a year after her death.
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| Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
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Very interesting story with a message about making decisions when in the throws of grieving...."wait ONE year" after the death to immortalize the dear one with your gift of poetry, pieces of jewelry, etc. Surprised he didn't put the unfinished painting in the coffin, as well. Speaking of memorable jewels...the Beaded 'R' is one. Nice!
ReplyDeleteSue at CollectInTexas Gal
What a story! He was a passionate guy.
ReplyDeleteMy ceiling looks like the green part of your R :-)
Your beading is excellent. Yes Rosetti was a different guy and I love the Pre-Raphaelites.
ReplyDeleteWow...poor guy. Very sad story. So many artists are tortured souls.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea... So sad, yet understandable. Lovely beaded R! Thanks for dropping by my blog and commenting. Hang in there, we're almost through April!!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting story and lovely beadwork!
ReplyDeleteThe non-poets will think he's weird. The poets will probably wonder why it took him so long.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and pretty creepy. Wouldn't his books have been dust by then? Beautiful beads.
ReplyDeleteI like to look at paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites, but there's no getting away from it, some of them were pretty weird and Rossetti's shenanigans over his poems seems to bear that out.
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