Rossetti Archive Chronology

This chronology is largely focused on the period beginning with the birth of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and ending with his death (1828-1882). Some chronological information about Rossetti's parents and grandparents is provided, and the chronology also signals the dates of key social and historical events of the period, as well as events that would have been specially important for Rossetti and his circle.

1714

Birth of Agostino Ansaldo Polidori, a doctor of Bientana near Pisa.

1736

Birth of William Pierce, a writing master in London.

1740

Birth of Nicola Rossetti, a blacksmith of Vasto, in the Abruzzo Citeriore, then part of the Kingdom of Naples.

1764

Birth of Gaetano Polidori at Bientana, son of Agostino Ansaldo ("Grandfather Polidori").

1783

28 February: Birth of Gabriele Pasquale Guiseppe Rossetti.

1785

Gaetano Polidori a travelling secretary to Conte Alfieri, the tragedian.

1789

July: The taking of the Bastille. Gaetano comes to England.

1793

February: Gaetano marries Anna Maria Pierce, a governess, daughter of William Pierce.

1795

7 September: Birth of Dr. John William Polidori (Byron's travelling physician).

1799

French-republican invasion of Kingdom of Naples; Nicola Rossetti flogged.

1800

Death of Nicola Rossetti.
April: Birth of Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori ("The Antique").

1804

Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti sent to University of Naples.

1806

Deposition of Ferdinand I of Naples; accession of Joseph Bonaparte.

1807

Gabriele appointed librettist in operatic theatre of San Carlo.

1808

Murat succeeds Joseph Bonaparte, as King Joachim of Naples.
Gabriele Rossetti made Curator of Ancient Marbles and Bronzes in museum at Naples.

1813

Gabriele Rossetti goes to Rome as Secretary of Deputation on Public Instruction and the Fine Arts.

1815

King Joachim leaves after Napoleon's defeat; Restoration of Ferdinand.

1816

April: Byron leaves England with Dr. John William Polidori.
September: Byron and Polidori part.

1820

King Ferdinand forced to grant a constitution; Gabriele Rossetti composes "Ode to the Dawn of the Constitution-Day".

1821

King Ferdinand abolishes the constitution.
March: Gabriele Rossetti proscribed as member of Carbonari.
June: Escapes to Malta by aid of Admiral Sir Graham Moore.
August: Suicide of Dr. John William Polidori.
28 September: Amnesty granted by King Ferdinand to all but 13 of the constitutionalists, of whom Gabriele Rossetti is one.

1822

Gabriele befriended by John Hookham Frere, then in retirement at Malta.

1824

February: Arrives in London with introductions from Frere.

1825

Subsists by teaching Italian.

1826

Publication of volume one of La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri con Comento Analitico.
10 April: Gabriele Rossetti marries Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori.

1827

17 February: Birth of Maria Francesca Rossetti.
2 April: Birth of William Holman Hunt (W. Holman Hunt, O.M.).

1828

12 May: Birth of Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, afterwards Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

1829

8 June: Birth of John Everett Millais (Sir J.E. Millais, P.R A.).
25 September: Birth of William Michael Rossetti.

1830

5 December: Birth of Christina Georgina Rossetti.

1831

Gabriele Rossetti appointed to teach Italian Language and Literature at King's College, London.
Dante Gabriel shows precocity in drawing and writing; develops a leg-weakness.

1833

Birth of Edward Burne-Jones (later Sir Edward Burne-Jones).

1834

24 March: Birth of William Morris.

1836

Rossetti family moves from 38 to 50 Charlotte Street, Portland Square.
September: Dante Gabriel attends Rev. Mr. Paul's School in Foley Street.
Gaetano Polidori retires to Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire.

1837

September: Dante Gabriel enters King's College School.

1838

Opening of National Gallery in its present building.

1839

Polidoris return to London (Park Village East, Regent's Park).
Seymour Kirkup sends coloured drawing of Giotto's Portrait of Dante, discovered in the Bargello of Florence.

1840

Gabriele Rossetti prints Il Mistero dell' Amor Platonico del Medio Evo (5 vols.), but withholds it from publication.

1841

Dante Gabriel writes "Sir Hugh the Heron".

1842

July: He leaves King's College School.
Death of John Sell Cotman, his drawing master.
September: Rossetti at Chalfont-St.-Giles, Buckinghamshire, home of Henry Polydore ("the lawyer"), until December.
Gabriele Rossetti's decline in health; his La Beatrice di Dante published. Massini at 50 Charlotte Street.

1843

January: Rossetti at Mr. Cary's Drawing Academy (Sass's); member of a sketching club.
June: Gabriele Rossetti's sight fails; his visit to Hastings.
Dante Gabriel's first lessons in German from Dr. Adolph Heimann.
July: Visit to Exhibition of Cartoons at Westminster Hall.
Printing of Sir Hugh the Heron at Gaetano Polidori's private press.
19 October: First visit to Boulogne; Rossetti with Maenza family.
November: Returns to London.

1844

Exhibition at Westminster Hall; Rossetti sees Ford Madox Brown's Wilhelmus Conquistator and Adam and Eve after the Fall.
November: Second visit of Rossetti to Boulogne; lessons in Italian.

1845

Attack of smallpox keeps Rossetti at Boulogne till February.
William Rossetti obtains clerkship in Board of Excise.
Third exhibition at Westminster Hall. Fresco-painting by Dyce, Maclise and Madox-Brown.

1846

July: Rossetti leaves Cary's Drawing Academy.
Friendship with Doughtys and Charley Ware, Americans.
Rossetti admitted as student to Antique School of Royal Academy.
Description of his first entry by a fellow-student.
Gabriele Rossetti begins versified Autobiography (published in 1901).

1847

Rossetti attempts his first painting in oils (Retro Me Sathana), shows it to Sir Charles Eastlake.
He is seen by Holman Hunt, sketching from the gates of Ghiberti.
He writes the first draft of "The Blessed Damozel".
Period of "haunting the Reading-room at the British Museum".
Date of self-portrait now in National Portrait Gallery.
Friendship with Major Calder Campbell and Alexander Munro.
27 November: Letter and manuscript poems sent to W. Bell Scott.
This year, or perhaps the previous year, DGR began making his translations that would eventually comprise The Early Italian Poets volume (1861).

1848

January: Visit of Bell Scott to No. 50 Charlotte Street; his description of Gabriele Rossetti.
February: Rossetti searching for instruction in art, has two names in view.
March: Visit of F.G. Stephens to No. 50 Charlotte Street.
Rossetti writes to Madox Brown asking for lessons.
31 March: Leigh Hunt writes in appreciation of Rossetti's manuscript poems.
4 May: Rossetti at Madox Brown's studio.
Admires Holman Hunt's Eve of St. Agnes.
June: Works with Madox Brown and at Life School in Maddox Street.
July: Cyclographic Society formed; members include Millais, Stephens, Woolner, Collinson, and Deverell as well as Hunt and Rossetti.
Design by Rossetti of Gretchen in Church criticised by Millais.
August: Rossetti goes with Hunt to Blackheath to sketch.
Reading of Monckton Milne's Life and Letters of John Keats.
20 August: Rossetti settles with Hunt in joint studio at No. 7 Cleveland Street.
Visits to and from Madox Brown.
Description of Rossetti and his family circle at this time by Hunt.
Rossetti's "storehouse of literary treasures" and original poems.
30 August: Cyclographic Society breaks up.
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin begun.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood a comradeship rather than a real collaboration in style.
Hunt's description of Rossetti's zeal.
September-October: Probable date of momentous meeting at Millais' studio when the idea of founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed.
31 December: First formal meeting of the P.R.B.

1849

March: The Girlhood of Mary Virgin on exhibition at Free Exhibition of Modern Art, Hyde Park Corner.
Rossetti leaves Hunt's studio in Cleveland St.
7 April: Friendly notice of Rossetti's picture in The Athenæum by Solomon Hart.
7 May: Royal Academy Exhibition. Work of Hunt and Millais well placed.
14 May: Criticism of Hunt and Millais in The Athenæum.
25 August: The Girlhood of Mary Virgin sold to the Marchioness of Bath.
27 September: Rossetti leaves for Paris with Holman Hunt.
15 October: They go to Brussels, thence to Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp.
27 October: Rossetti and Hunt return to England.
10 November: Rossetti rents a studio at 72 Newman Street.
25 December: Ecce Ancilla Domini! begun.
Elizabeth Siddal discovered by Deverell.

1850

1 January: The Germ, No. 1 published.
Rossetti working at canvas for Hist! said Kate the Queen, in preference to unsaleable religious subjects.
Elizabeth Siddal models for Rossovestita.
1 February: The Germ, No. 2 published.
Rossetti returns to the picture Ecce Ancilla Domini!; receives help with perspective from F.G. Stephens.
31 March: Art and Poetry (continuation of The Germ, No. 3).
8 April: Ecce Ancilla Domini! at Free Exhibition of Modern Art, now the Portland Gallery, Regent Street.
Rossetti divulges the secret of the letters "P.R.B."
20 April: Trenchant criticism of Rossetti's picture and the supposed aims of his clique in The Athenæum, by Frank Stone.
6 May: Royal Academy Exhibition: Millais' Christ in the House of his Parents (The Carpenter's Shop), Holman Hunt's Christians Escaping from the Druids.
1 June: Adverse notice in The Athenæum of Millais' and Hunt's pictures, also covering Rossetti.
James Collinson withdraws from P.R.B.
Rossetti writes to Robert Browning.
10 Oct. to 13 November: Rossetti "quarrelling with a leaf". Reads "Philip van Artevelde" by Sir Henry Taylor.
1 December: Tennyson returns DGR's translation of Dante's Vita Nuova, with comment on cockney rhymes.
2 December: Regular meetings of P.R.B., "thoroughly obsolete".
3 December: Rossetti offers his ballad "Dennis Shand" to a magazine.
William Rossetti contributing art-criticism to The Critic.
Rossetti writes notice of Exhibition of Modern British Art at the Old Water-Colour Gallery.

1851

January: F.G. Stephens succeeds William Rossetti on The Critic.
William Rossetti writes for The Spectator.
13 January: Rossetti takes studio at 17 Red Lion Square with Walter Deverell.
Millais wishes to drop use of the letters "P.R.B."
9 February: Meeting of P.R.B. Discussion on election of Deverell. Elaborate new rules drawn up.
Rossetti considers exhibiting a small picture.
A watercolor of Dante Drawing an Angel begun.
Also first version of How They Met Themselves.
Relations with Lizzie Siddal renewed.
May: Royal Academy Exhibition. Rossetti does not exhibit.
Holman Hunt's Valentine and Sylvia, Millais' Woodman's Daughter and Mariana.
7 May: The Times critic accuses Pre-Raphaelites of complete ignorance of perspective.
8 May: Coventry Patmore asks Ruskin to defend the Pre-Raphaelites.
13 May: Ruskin's letter denying the lack of perspective and praising the workmanship. He deprecates however Romanist and Tractarian tendencies.
14 May: Punch caricatures the Mariana picture and others.
30 May: Ruskin's second letter to The Times pointing out some of the Pre-Raphaelites' faults: "the commonness of features".
Rossetti joins Madox Brown at 17 Newman Street. Site for head of Chaucer in Brown's large picture now in Sidney.
August: Ruskin's pamphlet on Pre-Raphaelitism printed. Retort to Art, its Constitution and Capacities by Rev. Edward Young, and article in the Art-Union by J.B. (Bonnington).
Madox Brown's Christ Washing Peter's Feet begun on "wet-white" at Millais' "lying suggestion".
Rossetti at work on watercolor of Beatrice at a Marriage-feast Denies Dante her Salutation. Art-criticism for The Spectator.
November: Engagement to Lizzie Siddal. Rossetti family at No. 38 Arlington Street, Mornington Crescent.

1852

Rossetti with Bateman in some rooms at Highgate. Paints an Annunciation, the virgin at the water-side, with Lizzie Siddal as model. Hunt's Light of the World on the easel; study of Lizzie Siddal's hair.
1 May: Royal Academy Exhibition. Madox Brown's Christ Washing Peter's Feet; Millais' Ophelia and The Huguenot; Hunt's Hireling Shepherd; Brown's Chaucer at Court of Edward III.
22 May: Disgruntled but on the whole favorable notice by The Athenæum. The Times, Morning Post and Examiner still hostile.
1 July: British Quarterly Review explains P.R.B. aims.
Woolner, Bernard Smith, and Edward Bateman emigrate to Australia.
August: Rossetti at work on watercolor of Dante Drawing an Angel. "I have abandoned poetry". Lizzie Siddal first mentioned in family letters. Rossetti joins her at Hastings.
September: Watercolor of Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante. Portraits of Bell Scott and of Teodoro Rossetti.
November: No. 14 Chatham Place, Blackfriars as Rossetti's "first rooms of his own".
Formation of Cosmopolitan Club.
December: Exhibition of sketches in Pall Mall East. Rossetti's Beatrice Denying her Salutation, Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante, and Rossovestita exhibited.
Lizzie Siddal learning to design and paint at 14 Chatham Place. We Are Seven, St. Agnes Eve, Pippa and the Woman of Loose Life.

1853

January: Ecce Ancilla Domini! re-entitled The Annunciation and sent to Francis McCracken.
P.R.B. Journal discontinued.
March: Rossetti hears of Ruskin's praise of Dante Drawing an Angel.
Discontinues use of P.R.B. on letters. Portraits of mother and other relatives.
12 April: P.R.B. meeting to draw portraits for Woolner.
12 April: Rossetti's letter to Woolner, "Ruskin is only half-informed about Art".
Rossetti's parents at Frome Selwood in Somerset.
Coventry Patmore publishes his first verses.
May: Royal Academy Exhibition: Millais' Order of Release; Hunt's Claudio and Isabella.
Favourable notices by Tom Taylor in The Times.
22 May: Favourable notice by Ford in The Athenæum.
June: Rossetti visits Bell Scott at Newcastle. "The Sid" (Lizzie Siddal) at Chatham Place in his absence. Madox Brown moves to Hampstead; begins Work.
1 July: Rossetti returns to Newcastle from walking-tour with Bell Scott to Carlisle and Hexham.
12 July: Rossetti at Stratford-on-Avon, after walking through Coventry, Warwick, and Kenilworth.
August: Lizzie Siddal consumptive; curvature of the spine.
Rossetti reading Haydon's life and Benevenuto Cellini's.
September: Sketches for the Marchioness of Bath. Drawings of Lizzie Siddal.
30 September: Asks 35 guineas for a sketch from Francis McCracken.
8 November: "So now the whole Round Table is dissolved".
Christina Rossetti's sonnet on the dissolution of the P.R.B.
December: Death of Gaetano Polidori ("Grandfather Polidori").
Rossetti looking for a wall to paint in new picture Found.

1854

2 February: Death of Walter Deverell.
Rossetti designs Arthur's Tomb.
14 February: Holman Hunt leaves England to join Thomas Seddon in Egypt. Rossetti and Millais plan a new Cyclographic Society.
30 March: Lizzie Siddal very unwell. Howitts recommend Dr. Garth Wilkinson.
13 April: Ruskin calls at Chatham Place and offers to help Rossetti.
25 April: Rossetti at Denmark Hill to dinner, called away to attend his father's deathbed.
26 April: Death of Gabriele Rossetti at 166 Albany Street.
29 April: Royal Academy Exhibition. Holman Hunt's The Light of the World and The Awakened Conscience.
29 April: Morning Chronicle speaks of Millais' departure and The Awakened Conscience as a disagreeable picture.
30 April: The Times speaks of "the rapid decline of a heresy".
4 May: The Athenæum speaks of "sentiment of the Ernest Maltravers School".
15 May: Rossetti's letter to McCracken on his taste in colour, Titian, Hogarth, Wilkie, and Delaroche. Begins regular correspondence with William Allingham, the poet.
References to Rossetti introduced into Ruskin's Lectures on Architecture and Painting.
Rossetti with Mme. Bodichon (Barbara Smith) and Lizzie Siddal at Hastings. Great anxiety about the latter's health.
Ruskin's wife obtains a separation.
15 June: Ruskin's letter to Rossetti on his priority as a Pre-Raphaelite.
29 July: Italian translations sent to Allingham for comment. Also some original poems.
October: Ruskin offers to buy Rossetti's pictures, criticises his unsafe pigments, rubbings out, capriciousness and disorderly habits.
October: Rossetti looking for a calf for his picture Found.
November: Rossetti at Hampstead, painting his calf "like Albert Dürer hair by hair"; wearing Brown's clothes; going into town to see Lizzie Siddal. Visits to pawnbroker. Has written "Stratton Water" and some sonnets. Probably "Love's Nocturne" and "Sudden Light" also in existence.

1855

January: Rossetti joins Ruskin at Working Men's College, Great Ormond Street. Finishes woodcuts for Allingham's "Day and Night Songs".
William Morris, Burne-Jones and their friends propose to become monks.
March: Madox Brown leaves his house at Hampstead.
12 April: Ruskin offers to settle £150 a year on Lizzie Siddal, during visit to Denmark Hill.
May: First instalment arrives. Rossetti painting watercolors for Ruskin: The Nativity. Beatrice Denying Salutation (a replica) and Paolo and Francesca (diptych). "Drawerfuls of Miss Siddals".
June: Ruskin recommends that his friend Dr. Acland should see "Ida" (Lizzie Siddal).
September: She leaves with Mrs. Kincaid for Nice and Mentone.
20 September: Rossetti draws self-portrait, reproduced in Memoir (frontispiece).
27 September: Rossetti makes sketch of Tennyson reading Maud. Also portrait of Browning, whom he monopolises much to Hunt's disgust.
October: Rossetti with Alexander Munro to meet Lizzie Siddal in Paris for Great Exhibition. Millais and Madox Brown represented.
November: Ruskin asks for Passover in the Holy Family (watercolor and sketch). Tells Rossetti to keep his room in order and go to bed early. Probable date of first encounter with Fanny Cornforth (later Fanny Schott).
December: Morris visits Wilfred Heeley at Cambridge; joint admiration for Tennyson's early work and The Germ.
Proposal of calling their magazine The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine.
Burne-Jones meets Rossetti at Vernon Lushington's rooms.

1856

January: A.C. Swinburne goes up to Oxford.
May: Lord Leighton's Gimabue at Royal Academy Exhibition.
29 May: Ruskin's first "Notes on the Principal Pictures".
Lizzie Siddal returns from France. Ruskin offers her missals, Dürers, and the run of his house and grounds.
Rossetti has The Monk (Fra Pace) on his easel, and a watercolor version of Dante's Dream finished. John P. Seddon writes to ask him to do work for Llandaff Cathedral. Rossetti makes first designs for The Seed of David.
Burne-Jones takes Deverell's old rooms in Red Lion Square.
Rossetti hears of and meets with William Morris.
July: Canon Dixon on Burne-Jones's recommendation asks Rossetti for a contribution to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine.
1 August: The Burden of Nineveh appears there anonymously and Ruskin sounds Rossetti as to the authorship. Millais' marriage.
September: The Brownings return to Florence after the publication of Aurora Leigh. Rossetti's comments on the same. Probable date of breach of relations.
1 November: The Blessed Damozel in much revised and altered form appears in The Oxford and Cambridge, together with article on Rossetti's art by Vernon Lushington.
Thomas E. Plint of Leeds purchases some of Rossetti's work.
Death of Thomas Seddon on returning from Palestine.
1 December: "The Staff and Scrip" appears in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine.

1857

January: Ruskin praises pen-and-ink drawing, Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon.
February: Rossetti writes to Bell Scott of the advent of Burne-Jones and Morris.
His designs (St. Cecilia, etc.) for Moxon's edition of Tennyson nearly ready.
Lizzie Siddal's agreement with Ruskin closed.
4 July: Exhibition at No. 4 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square of watercolors: Dante's Dream, Dante drawing an Angel, The Annunciation, The Blue Closet, Hesterna Rosa, and Mary Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee (pen and ink). Also the designs for Tennyson's poems in photogravure.
August: Rossetti visits Benjamin Woodward at Oxford. Project of decorating walls of new Oxford Union. Recruits Morris, Burne-Jones, Arthur Hughes, Val Prinsep, and others.
September: Rossetti and Morris meet Jane Burden (later Mrs. Morris).
Rossetti's spate of watercolors on Morte d'Arthur subjects (The Chapel Before the Lists, etc.). Queen Guinevere (Jane Burden). Fulford prints Sister Helen.
Morris's reading from Froissart and Malory.
December: Rossetti to Matlock to see Lizzie Siddal. A Christmas Carol.

1858

January: Frescoes at Oxford Union abandoned. Bell Scott's and Patmore's descriptions.
14 January: C.A. Howell implicated in attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Orsini.
Break in correspondence with Allingham (Jan. 1857 - July 1858). Bocca Baciata (Fanny Cornforth) begun.
No family letters published. The first Hamlet and Ophelia.
1 March: The Hogarth Club constituted at No. 178 Piccadilly.
15 May: End of Rossetti's first association with Working Men's College. Morris publishes his Defence of Guinevere.
July: Rossetti sends Allingham some proof-sheets of The Early Italian Poets. Revises Jenny and other original verses.
Rossetti exhibits privately at the Hogarth Club.
Bell Scott introduces Lady Trevelyan and James Leathart to Rossetti as patrons. Leathart commissions Rossetti to finish Found.
Watercolor of The Virgin in the House of St. John for Lady Trevelyan.

1859

Rossetti at work on side-panel for Llandaff altar-piece, David as Shepherd. Also Head of Christ watercolor. Demands £50 for pen and ink sketch. A drawing of Lizzie as My Lady Greensleeves, her favorite song.
26 April: Miss Jane Burden married to William Morris.
Rossetti completes two panels in oil of The Salutation of Beatrice.
Dantis Amor, pen-and-ink and oil.
Red Lion Square establishment broken up.
November: Rossetti completes Bocca Baciata (Fanny Cornforth).
On Ruskin's recommendation he approaches Miss Herbert, the actress (Mrs. Crabb), for center-panel of Llandaff altar-piece.
13 November: Records first success in life-size oil-painting.
December: He resumes correspondence with Allingham. Discusses Poe's "Ulalume", and Allingham's Nightingale Valley.

1860

Rossetti's financial position stronger.
Bocca Baciata shown at the Hogarth Club exhibition.
13 April: Rossetti at Hastings where Lizzie Siddal seriously ill. Announces approaching marriage. Speaks of a "special license".
23 May: Rossetti married to Lizzie Siddal at St. Clement's Church, Hastings.
9 June: Rossetti and his wife to Boulogne and Paris; suggestion to rent ancient chateau near Boulogne and give up London rooms for sake of his wife's health.
19 June: Boulogne scheme given up. Lizzie much better. Work on Found for James Leathart.
Second version of How They Met Themselves, also Dr. Johnson at the Mitre.
18 August: Rossetti and his wife back in London. Work on Llandaff altar-piece, Found, portraits of Guiseppe Maenza, Mrs. Madox Brown (née Hill), Miss Herbert. Renews acquaintance with A.C. Swinburne.
5 October: Project of firm for church decorative work.
Joseph Accused before Potiphar.
Lucretia Borgia, Bonifazio's Mistress, Regina Cordium.

1861

18 January: Birth of Jane Alice Morris. Rossetti "like a king" at the christening.
Friendship with Alexander Gilchrist and interest in Blake.
11 March: Rossetti returns to teaching staff of Working Men's College.
April: Prospectus for firm of Morris, Marshall Faulkner and Co. issued. "The slashing hand and imperious accent of Rossetti" detected.
Rossetti's cartoons for stained-glass at Stanley Eng Church, Birket Foster's house (Tristram and Iseult, also King René's Honeymoon). St. Martin's-on-the-Hill, Scarborough (Parable of the Vineyard, Adam and Eve in Paradise, etc.). St. George and the Dragon (six designs), The Last Judgement (nine designs) also designs for panels and tiles.
2 May: Birth of still-born child to Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti.
Publication of The Early Italian Poets by Smith, Elder and Co.
21 May: Patmore thanks Rossetti for "one of few really precious books". Proofs had been read by Count Saffi, Swinburne, Ruskin, as well as Patmore, Allingham, and William Rossetti.
18 June: Proposed etching of two lovers The Rose Garden, for frontispiece abandoned.
Rossetti prepares designs for Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market, cut later on wood by Faulkner.
A.C. Swinburne publishes "Queen Mother" and "Rosamond.".
Rossetti revises "Dante at Verona", "Love's Nocturne", "Jenny", "The Portrait", and other poems. Asks Ruskin to get Thackeray to print some in Cornhill. Ruskin objects to "Jenny".
Hogarth Club closed. Rossetti makes acquaintance of George Meredith and Frederick A. Sandys.
September: Period of volunteer movement. Morris in camp at Wimbledon. Rossetti executes elaborate pen-and-ink sketch Cassandra, also watercolors of The Annunciation, Paola and Francesca, Dr. Johnson at the Mitre, The Farmer's Daughter; and in oil Fair Rosamund, Burd Alane, Love's Greeting.

1862

Rossetti at work on watercolor of St. George and the Princess Sabra, also Tristram and Yseult Drinking the Love Potion.
11 February: Death of Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti.
17 February: Her funeral; Rossetti places "Dante at Verona", "Love's Nocturne", and other manuscript poems in her coffin.
2 March: Rossetti writes to Mrs. Gilchrist thanking her for sympathy.
10 March: Rossetti resigns from Council of Teachers at Working Men's College. Stays for a time with William and the others at Albany Street. Also with Madox Brown.
April: Morris and his friends at Red Lion Square again, holding meetings twice a fortnight. Faulkner finishes woodcuts for Goblin Market.
Rossetti's window for St. Martin's gains an Exhibition award.
July: Ruskin and Burne-Jones in Italy.
August: Rossetti in rooms at 59 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Makes acquaintance of Whistler and through him of Legros.
Visit to Bell Scott at Newcastle. Photograph by Downey.
24 October: 16 Cheyne Walk. Rossetti takes up residence. Engages W.J. Knewstub as his assistant.
3 November: Rossetti at work in his new studio. First picture, Joan of Arc, from Mrs. Beyer. Assists Mrs. Gilchrist in editing Life of Blake. Correspondence with Professor Chas. Eliot Norton.
Morris invents "trellis design" wallpaper.

1863

Rossetti and William Rossetti continue editorial work for Gilchrist's Life of Blake.
Rossetti takes up study for Beata Beatrix made from Miss Siddal ca. 1856. Also paints portraits of Miss Ada Vernon; oils: Helen of Troy, Aurelia, and Belcolore; and watercolors: St. George, Borgia, A Lady in Yellow. Begins The Beloved (see February 1866).
10 July: St. Martin's-on-the-Hill, Scarborough consecrated. Rossetti's work described. His reputation as an artist. Swinburne, Meredith, and William Rossetti at Cheyne Walk.
Rossetti collects a menagerie at Cheyne Walk. A zebu and other animals purchased in Cremorne Gardens. Friendship with Whistler.
Advent of Frederick Leighton as a patron.
Visit to Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp with William Rossetti.
Plans Aspecta Medusa (not carried out), Lady Lilith with Fanny Schott as first model: Venus Verticordia, from "a good-looking cook".

1864

Meredith ceases to pay his weekly visit to Cheyne Walk.
Charles Augustus Howell returns. His ability as a facsimilist. Rossetti introduces him to Ruskin. H. Treffry Dunn as successor to Knewstub.
26 June: Third and last panel of Llandaff altar-piece, David as King, delivered on payment of further one hundred pounds. Rossetti on short visit to Paris.
September: Morris's proposal for a palace of art at Upton abandoned. His dangerous illness and long confinement to Red House.
Rossetti's quarrel with Thomas Woolner.
William Bell Scott comes to stay in London.
Frederick J. Shields introduces Rossetti to use of compressed charcoal. Rossetti employs it in studies, also tinting.

1865

Watercolors: The Merciless Lady, Fight for a Woman, Washing Hands.
Oils: Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon, The Blue Bower, Il Ramoscello (or Bella e Buona).
April: Rossetti meets with and engages Alexa Wilding as model.
18 July: Ruskin regrets that he can no longer associate with Rossetti.
August: Rossetti a member of the Garrick Club. Annual income £2050.
Sale of Thomas E. Plint's collection, including works by F. Madox Brown, Holman Hunt, Wallis, Windus, Lewis, Hook, Frere. DGR's Burd Alane, Carlisle Wall, Bower Garden, Wedding of St. George, and Dr. Johnson at the Mitre fetch very poor prices.
15 October: Rossetti in letter to The Athenæum denies that he has given up oil-painting.
Swinburne's "Atalanta in Calydon", written for the most part at 16 Cheyne Walk, is published.
November: Morris and the works moved to Queen Square, Bloomsbury. Tempera painting and other adornments of Red House abandoned. His manager, George Warrington Taylor, a Catholic, introduced by Rossetti. (d. 1870).
Rossetti continually at his easel without exercise or change of air.

1866

Proposal for Sandys to illustrate poem by Christina Rossetti, to be called "Grave-clothes and Cradle-clothes". Sandys staying at 16 Cheyne Walk.
February: The Beloved for which Miss Mackenzie, Ellen Smith, and Keami, a pure-blooded gipsy, were models, finished and despatched to Mr. George Rae.
Portrait of the painter's mother, designs for Christina Rossetti's The Prince's Progress.
Swinburne's Poems and Ballads printed. His stay at 16 Cheyne Walk terminates.
Rossetti a member of Arundel Club. Meets Joseph Knight, W.s. Gilbert.
Interest in séances, Mrs. Lynn Lynton, Mrs. Marshall and C.A. Howell.
24 August: Monna Vanna, or "the toilette picture", and Sibylla Palmifera both from Miss Alexa Wilding.
Visit to Tenterden and Winchelsea with Frederick Sandys.
September: First onset of uraemic trouble.
27 September: Withdrawal of Swinburne's Poems and Ballads.
5 December: Ruskin calls at 16 Cheyne Walk to see Beata Beatrix, now sold to Mr. William Cowper (later Lord Mount-Temple).

1867

Rossetti earning £3000. Buys a Botticelli, then little in demand.
Monna Rosa (portrait of Mrs. Leyland).
March: Starts "blue-china" craze with Whistler. Marquis d'Azeglio's collection bought for £200.
June: Morris publishes The Life and Death of Jason with Bell and Valdy.
Challenge to Tennyson of the new school.
Rossetti's interest in Gilbert's "Bab Ballads" then appearing in Fun.
August: Sending money to the Siddals, continued until 1878.
Relinquishes membership of Burlington Fine Arts Club.
Suffering from insomnia.
September: At Lymington, Hants, with William Allingham. Walking eight to ten miles a day by Doctor's orders.
Watercolors: Loving Cup, Return of Tibullus to Delia, Aurora, a Magdalene.

1868

Resumes painting from Mrs. William Morris: Portrait, Aurea Catena, La Pia (crayon studies). Many replicas by Howel and Treffry Dunn.
12 May: Rossetti's letter to his mother on his fortieth birthday.
Morris publishes The Earthly Paradise, vol. I, with F.s. Ellis, first introduced to him by Swinburne.
Extinction of Rossetti's influence over Morris as an artist.
Beginning of Morris' Icelandic studies.
Notes on Royal Academy Exhibition, by A.C. Swinburne and W.M. Rossetti, including Rossetti's sonnets "Lady Lilith" (1864), "Sibylla Palmifera" (1866), and "Venus Verticordia" (1864).
Correspondence with James Smetham, a pupil at Working Men's College.
June: Purchases by Frederick R. Leyland, Mr. William Graham, and Mr. Leonard R. Valpy.
Attempts by Noel Paton and others to induce Rossetti to exhibit.
Rossetti insures paintings and drawings at his home for £2000.
First project for large oil painting Dante's Dream.
September: Depression and failing sight prevent further painting.
Rossetti goes with Bell Scott to Penkill Castle, Ayrshire, residence of Miss Alice Boyd. Recites "Song of the Bower" from memory. Persuaded to return to his poetry. Scott working on illustrations to "The King's Quair" suggests "The King's Tragedy" to Rossetti.
6 October: Insomnia checked but eyesight still giving cause for anxiety.
3 November: Returns to 16 Cheyne Walk.

1869

Completion of memorial window to Margaret Polidori at Christ Church, Albany Street: The Sermon on the Plain.
Pandora (Mrs. Morris) commissioned by Mr. John Graham.
Dante's Dream (Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Stillman, Alexa Wilding) commissioned by Mr. William Graham. Portrait of Miss Spartali (Mrs. Stillman).
1 March: Publication of sixteen sonnets in Fortnightly Review.
He sends sonnets ("a lively band of bogies") to his mother.
May: Smith and Elder tender account for The Early Italian Poets.
Ruskin appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford.
August: Estimate from Strangeways for cost of printing Rossetti's original poems.
Rossetti visits the Morrisses at Bad-Ems, near Nassau: drawing of The M's at Ems.
20 August: Rossetti at Penkill Castle, Ayrshire.
21 August: Sends first proofs of poems to William Rossetti.
26, 27, and 31 August: Important letters regarding revisions.
First proofs include "Hand and Soul".
Bell Scott's fears of suicidal tendency.
20 September: Rossetti returns to 16 Cheyne Walk. "Dennis Shand" privately printed. Has written "Troy Town", "Translations from Villon", "Eden Bower", "Farewell to the Glen", and 20 sonnets towards The House of Life, including "Willow-Wood".
10 October: Exhumation of manuscript poems.
20 October: Rossetti receives "the sad wreck".
26 October: Letter to Swinburne explaining the circumstances.
6 November: Rossetti suffering from severe mental strain.
15 November: Reading of "A Last Confession", "Jenny", and "Dante at Verona" to Stillman, Miss Spartali, Tebbs, Joseph Knight, and Madox Brown.
December: Rossetti in doctors' hands (Sir William Jenner and Dr. Thomas Gordon Hake). Abstinence from spirits and a country life prescribed.

1870

Studies for Dante's Dream. La Donna della Fiamma (Mrs. Morris).
Completion of Morris's The Earthly Paradise.
February: Rossetti refuses offer of Messrs. Blackwood to publish his poems. Goes to Ellis and persuades Swinburne to do likewise.
Letter to John Skelton of Frasers and to Swinburne regarding reviews.
March: Morris laboring over review of Rossetti's poems for The Academy.
10 March: Rossetti goes with William J. Stillman to Mme. Bodichon's house at Scalands, near Robertsbridge, Sussex. Visit from Morrises.
Trouble with eyesight and insomnia; first use of chloral.
25 April: Publication of Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
26 April: Rossetti calls on Ellis to sign presentation copies, returning immediately to Scalands.
30 April: Review by John Westland Marston in The Athenæum.
1 May: Reviews by Swinburne in Fortnightly, Skelton in Fraser's.
9 May: Rossetti returns to London.
14 May: Review by Morris in The Academy; Saturday Review hostile.
20 May: Second thousand copies issued.
Christina Rossetti's Commonplace and Other Stories published.
Morris publishes his Völsunga Saga.
Swinburne, Songs before Sunrise.
Rossetti proposes new edition of Early Italian Poets. (See 1873.)
Letters to Rossetti from Tennyson, Browning, Meredith, Sir Henry Taylor, Sir Theodore Martin, Professor Charles Eliot Norton, and others.
August: Unfavorable review in Blackwood's Magazine: "detected mediocrity".
Reviews of American edition (Roberts Bros.) by J.R. Bennet, J. Russell Lowell, etc.
September: Treffry Dunn having arranged the grouping, Rossetti sets to work on Dante's Dream: Bell Scott speaks of him "concealing his despair under a kind of ferocity".
Pandora for Mr. John Graham also in preparation.
17 December: Sibylla Palmifera finished for Mr. George Rae.
Rossetti writes 15 sonnets towards The House of Life.

1871

1 February: Review of Hake's Madeline: with other Poems in Fortnightly.
15 April: DGR publishes article on Maclise and his "Character Portraits" of 1830-38 in The Academy.
20 May: Morris and Rossetti agree to rent the Manor House, Kelmscott.
6 July: Morris leaves for Iceland.
17 July: Rossetti to Kelmscott. Description of house and of Samson tapestry to his mother and Bell Scott. Water-Willow, from Mrs. Morris. Replica of Beatrice.
Writes "Down Stream" (or "The River's Record") and "Sunset Wings".
August: Controversy in Notes and Queries on My Lady Greensleeves.
Friendship with Edmund Gosse, Sidney Colvin, Oliver Madox Brown.
10 September: Rossetti has finished "Rose Mary" except for "Beryl Songs", also "Soothsay", "The Cloud Confines", and 30 additional sonnets for the House of Life. Versions sent to Bell Scott in August.
1 October: "The Fleshly School of Poetry: Mr. D.G. Rossetti", in Contemporary Review. Rossetti returns to Cheyne Walk.
17 October: Robert Buchanan suspected; Letters to Ellis and W.M. Rossetti.
15 November: Rossetti still uncertain of writer's identity. Prepares replies.
16 December: "The Stealthy School of Criticism" in The Athenæum.
31 December: Pamphlet suppressed after taking legal advice. Sixth edition of Poems (part of third thousand) issued.
Dante's Dream finished for Mr. Wm. Graham; rejected on account of size. Replicas of Beata Beatrix and Lucrezia Borgia. Gives two sittings to G.f. Watts for portrait, now in National Portrait Gallery.

1872

Veronica Veronese and Proserpine commenced; considers drawing Cassandra. Rossetti's breakdown imminent.
May: Publication of The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the Day as a pamphlet.
2 June: Rossetti in state of mental collapse. To Roehampton with Hake, then to Madox Brown's. Serum on the brain. Feared laudanum poisoning.
21 June: Rossetti with Hakes (Dr. Gordon and his son) to Urrard House, Stobhall, Perthshire.
4 July: Sale of his "blue china". Bell Scott at Urrard House.
August: Rossetti at Trowan, Crieff, N.B., resumes work on replica of Beata Beatrix.
4 September: Dr. Franz Hueffer marries Miss C. Madox Brown.
24 September: Rossetti at Manor House, Kelmscott. Proposes to give up 16 Cheyne Walk.
C.A. Howell returns as his selling agent. Purchase of Rossetti's pictures for reselling. Period of great prosperity. Drawings of Mrs. Morris for The Day Dream and Pandora. First meeting with Theodore Watts-Dunton.

1873

January: Varnishing of replica of Beata Beatrix complete with predella. Begins Proserpine on seven different canvasses (mainly head-pictures), also Monna Prima Vera or The Day Dream, and Pandora.
February: Rossetti considers editing Michelangelo. Ligeia Siren in colored chalks. The Early Italian Poets to be republished in altered form.
March: William Rossetti correcting proofs.
April: Review by Rossetti of Hake's Parables and Tales.
Mr. Valpy makes an offer for Dante's Dream; his collection of crayon drawings.
15 May: First project of painting The Blessed Damozel.
La Ghirlandata, from Alexa Wilding and May Morris.
24 May: "Sunset Wings" in The Athenæum.
December: A Proserpine and Beata Beatrix ready for Mr. William Graham.
Gordon Hake at Kelmscott. Rossetti's affection for "Dizzy" and other animals.
Publication of Dante and His Circle (revision of Early Italian Poets).

1874

30 January: Hueffer suggests Tauchnitz edition of Poems.
February: The Gardener's Daughter, or The Bower Maiden to Mr. Graham. Dis Manibus, or The Roman Widow (Alexa Wilding and Mrs. Stillman).
March: Oliver Madox Brown at Kelmscott. Rossetti's irregular hours.
9 April: Rossetti asks Bell Scott for loan; receives payment from Leyland.
30 May: "Thames Valley Sonnets" ("Winter" and "Spring") in The Athenæum.
13 June: "Tommaseo's Lyrics" in The Athenæum.
Rossetti leaves Kelmscott.
Dissolution of Morris and Co. Beginning of period of seclusion.
Bell Scott, Shields, William Sharp, and Howell constant visitors.
Marriage of William Rossetti to Lucy Madox Brown; Rossetti's portrait of latter.
Controversy over Rossetti's liberties with Blake's poems in 1863.
5 November: Death of Oliver Madox Brown (b. 1855).
14 November: Rossetti's "Untimely Lost" in The Athenæum.
Friendship with Edmund Gosse, Nettleship O'Shaugnessy, and British Museum circle.

1875

Studies for The Blessed Damozel continued; also for The Sphinx and Venus Astarte, or Astarte Syriaca.
May: Bell Scott's Poems with dedicatory sonnet to Swinburne, Rossetti, and Morris.
June: La Bella Mano as a drawing.
28 August: Sonnets for Proserpine and La Bella Mano; the latter picture completed and sent to Ellis. Working on The Sea Spell (Alexa Wilding). Astarte Syriaca on the easel.
Obtains his portrait by G.f. Watts on a pretext.
18 October: To Aldwick Lodge, Bognor, Sussex.
Continues work on Astarte Syriaca and The Blessed Damozel; portraits of his mother, Christina, and other relatives; Watts-Dunton's visits.
Reads Hayden's Correspondence and Table-Talk and visits Blake's house at Felpham.
3 November: Letter to Bell Scott on the latter's poems and dedicatory sonnet.
December: Christina Rossetti's Annus Domini published; reviews by Gosse and Watts-Dunton.

1876

Continued stay at Bognor.
5 April: Progress with The Blessed Damozel replica for William Graham.
11 April: Noel Paton writes of Pandora and Magdalene at the Door of Simon, then on exhibition in Scotland.
29 April: Rossetti's income for past year totals £3,725. Correspondence with Mr. Roger Fry on Madonna Pietra and Mnemosyne (Lamp of Memory or La Ricordanze) later purchased by Fry.
Returns to Cheyne Walk from Bognor and leaves for Broadlands, Romsey, Isle of Wight, home of Lord and Lady Mount-Temple.
2 August: Working at the predella for Blessed Damozel.
5 August: Returns to Cheyne Walk. George Hake his personal attendant.
Correspondence with his uncle, Henry Polydore, on translations from Boccacio.
Work on Mnemosyne.

1877

January: Astarte Syriaca finished and sent to Roger Fry. Letter to the Times on reason for refusing to exhibit at new Grosvenor Gallery.
23 March: Sonnet for Astarte Syriaca.
April: Blessed Damozel finished and sent to William Graham.
Studies for A Vision of Fiammetta from Mrs. Stillman.
August: Recurrence of uraemic trouble.
Visit to Herne Bay. Visits of his mother and Christina. The group portrait of the same, and two portraits [ 1 and 2 ] of Christina.
October: Return to Cheyne Walk.
31 December: Graham asks for predella to Blessed Damozel. Friends at the time number Fairfax Murray, Shields, Sandys, Whistler, Legroz, Knight, Sharp, Hueffer, and the Hakes.

1878

Returns to painting, temporarily relinquished; replicas of Dante's Dream, Beata Beatrix, and La Donna Della Finestra.
Anxiety about illness of F.G. Stephens and James Smetham.
March: Interest in William Rossetti's Lives of Famous Poets.
June: Original Dante's Dream returned by Valpy on promise of replicas to value of about £2,000.
July: Translation of Rossetti's "A Last Confession" by Luigi Gamberale gives Rossetti fresh impetus towards poetry; mention of a sonnet on Cyprus.
5 October: Vision of Fiammetta to Mr. Turner.
16 October: sonnet "To Phillip Bourke Marston" in The Athenæum; "The Last Three from Trafalgar"; writing of "The White Ship" commenced.

1879

11 January: "Francesca da Rimini. Dante" in The Athenæum. "Broken Music" and "Lost Days" in A Treasury of English Sonnets by David Main. "A Little While", "New Year's Burden", "Three Shadows" set to music.
May: Portraits of Frederick Leyland and of Edith Williams.
Replica of Dante's Dream for Mr. Graham ready; also monochrome of Found.
July: Hall Caine lectures on Rossetti in Liverpool.
La Donna Della Finestra sold to F.s. Ellis.
October: Illness due to overdose of chloral.

1880

La Pia (Mrs. Morris) sent to Mr. Leyland. Second and smaller version of Dante's Dream to Mr. Graham. Working at The Day Dream (Mrs. Morris).
20 February: Correspondence with Hall Caine.
April: Additions to Life of Blake for new edition.
7 May: "The White Ship" completed. Sonnets on Blake and Chatterton.
July: Reading Cottle's Reminiscences of Coleridge. Sonnet on Coleridge.
August: Version of Beata Beatrix for Valpy nearly finished.
November: Second version of The Blessed Damozel to Leyland. Found taken up again for Graham, also The Boat of Love.
"Pride of Youth", a sonnet; also sonnets to pictures, such as "For 'Spring' by Sandro Botticelli (in the Accademia of Florence)".
First visit of Hall Caine to Cheyne Walk.

1881

"Tiber, Nile, and Thames", "Michelangelo's Kiss", "Found", and "The King's Tragedy" completed by March.
March: Ballads and Sonnets accepted for publication by Ellis. Translation of "Jenny", "A Last Confession", etc. by Luigi Gamberale published.
Reprint of "Character Portraits" in Memoir of Maclise by Mrs. Heaton.
"Czar Alexander the Second", a sonnet on assassination of March 13.
Offer from Liverpool Corporation to purchase Dante's Dream.
14 April: Rossetti sends proof-sheets for Ballads and Sonnets to Strangeways.
2 May: Dante's Dream suggested to Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, for exhibition.
17 August: On Hall Caine's persuasion the painting is dispatched.
Completion of La Pia, Beata Beatrix replica, La Donna della Finestra.
16 September: Ballads and Sonnets published, with dedication to Watts-Dunton. Also new edition of Poems.
September: Rossetti in London with Hall Caine for St. John's Vale, near Penrith in Cumberland.
17 October: Receives first payment of royalties on Ballads and Sonnets. Arranges publication with Roberts Bros., Boston, U.s.A.
Joan of Arc and Proserpine, the last replicas he works at.
December: Return to London. First attack of paralysis. Temporary recovery and reception of old friends, Stephens, Madox Brown, Leyland, Burne-Jones, Hueffer, Shields, Watts-Dunton.

1882

January: Decision to accept John P. Seddon's offer of a bungalow at Birchington-on-Sea.
Visit of Watts-Dunton, Sharp, Dr. Marshall, Mr. Leyland.
10 March: At Birchington tries to finish Proserpine and Joan of Arc; also ballad of "Jan Van Hunks".
9 April: Death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.