By Nina Heyn
There are so many artworks in London museums that you can always find a substantial exhibition taking place, no matter when you visit. Such is the case now at Tate Britain—part of the national galleries of British art. The Rossettis is a show devoted principally to Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and his family, fellow artists, and muses. Gabriel (Dante was the name he adopted in adulthood, so we will just call him Gabriel here) was a poet, illustrator, and painter whose background in Italian literature fed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement that he launched with a group of London intellectuals in 1848. The show is titled The Rossettis because Gabriel came from a family of artists and writers, and all his siblings wrote and drew from an early age. Their father, a political immigrant from Italy, became a professor of Italian at King’s College, and he devoted his life to studying and popularizing Dante Alighieri’s work. Gabriel’s sister Christina was an accomplished poet, while his other siblings Maria and William Michael were also writers. And then there were, of course, Gabriel’s lovers, some of whom he married, and all of whom modeled for his portraits of mythological and historical characters that he painted in the new style he co-invented.
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Bravo Nina ! Another exhibit I love. These not only gorgeous – but so meaningful – works you introduce us to, do so enrich our days. And for me, a memory of this one and others that have impressed me so, will stay with me the rest of my life.
I appreciate a variety of styles, subjects, and mediums. Some more than others. (Of course some not at all.) And some of that variety, including Gabriel Rossetti, I try to examine in great detail.
I come from neither an artistic nor academic background. I am working class and proud of it. However, I was introduced just a little to museums and artwork at an early age for which I am grateful.
Most rarely, something that “does it” for Solari, didnt “do” it for me. I was lucky enough to see this exhibition in the spring, and finally understood why the Rosettis left me with a hollow, sugar high, and uncomfortable aftertaste. They are fundamentally urban – the grasshopper – and I’m a country mouse, or ant. Not a criticism, just different frequencies.