Complete Paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Never less than idiosyncratic, Rossetti's illustrations are a curious blend of painterly exactitude, unexpected distortions, strange ornaments and private iconography. In place of caricature, he emphasises anatomical correctness and draughtsmanship humour is replaced by intellectual critique, psychological drama, yearning and idealized beauty contemporary life, by medieval fancy and sexuality. Rossetti's approach, like that of his contemporaries, was comprehensive. Working initially in the late fifties, when illustration was still dominated by the comic cartoons of untutored designers such George Cruikshank and Richard Doyle, he was one of the first of the new generation to insist that book-images should enshrine the fundamental seriousness and academic standards of painting. In keeping with the style of the Sixties, Rossetti transferred the language of painting to the arena of graphic art. Rossetti, illustration and the use of painterly imagery My aim here is to characterize his approach to illustration by outlining some of the key themes.

Widely admired, his work is the subject of a variety of interpretations, and it is probably impossible to arrive at a consensus of opinion. He only contributed to four books, producing a mere twelve illustrations, but his art had far-reaching implications. Dante Rossetti revolutionized painting and poetry, and he had a parallel affect on the development of mid-Victorian illustration.

Complete Paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Dante Gabriel Rossetti