Rossetti, William Michael

ART CRITIC, BIOGRAPHER (ENGLAND)
BORN 25 Sep 1829, London - DIED 5 Feb 1919, London
GRAVE LOCATION London: Highgate Cemetery West, Swain's Lane, Highgate

William Michael Rossetti was the son of the Italian scholarGabriele Rossetti and the tyounger brother of the painter Gabriel Dante Rossetti and the poet Christina Rossetti. He was a founding member of the Preraphaelite Brotherhood and became its biographer and the editor of its magazine "The Germ" in 1850. He worked as a civil servant, but he also wrote several biographies and edited the diaries of his uncle John Polidori. In 1873 he visited Claire Clairmont in France.

In 1874 he married Lucy Madox Brown, the daughter of the painter Fod Madox Brown. Their honeymoon took them to France and Italy. In 1875 their daughter Olivia Frances Madox was born. A son, Gabriel Arthur, followed in 1877. They had another daughter, Helen Maria in 1879 and twins, Mary Elizabeth and Michael Ford, in 1881. In 1882 he published "Talks with Trelawny" and in 1887 "Life of John Keats". Lucy died of tuberculosis in Italy in 1894. He made a large contribution to the Encyclopędia Britannica of 1911.

Family
• Mother: Polidori, Frances Mary Lavinia
• Father: Rossetti, Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe
• Wife: Madox Brown, Lucy (1874-1894)
• Brother: Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
• Sister: Rossetti, Christina

Related persons
• has a connection with Clairmont, Claire
• was a friend of Trelawny, Edward John
• met Williams, Jane

Events
0/6/1873William Rossetti visits Claire Clairmont in Florence. She was supposed to posess some papers about Byron and Shelley that he wanted to buy for someone else. Claire was in bad health after a fall and he never got to see the papers. However, he did have some interesting conversations with her. [Clairmont, Claire]

Images

The grave of Gabriele Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal at Highgate Cemetery West, London.
Picture by Androom (28 Mar 2016)

 

The grave of Gabriele Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal at Highgate Cemetery West, London.
Picture by Androom (28 Mar 2016)

 

Sources
• Jones, Kathleen, Learning not to be first, the Life of Christina Rossetti, The Windrush Press, Gloucestershire, 1991
• Meller, Hugh, London Cemeteries, An illustrated Guide and Gazetteer, Avebury Publishing, Amersham, 1981
William Michael Rossetti - Wikipedia


Rossi, Alice Seelye

Published: 26 Jan 2019
Last update: 20 Apr 2022