Rossetti, William Michael

Rossetti, William Michael

▪ English art critic
born September 25, 1829, London, England
died February 5, 1919, London
 English art critic, literary editor, and man of letters, brother of Dante Gabriel (Rossetti, Dante Gabriel) and Christina Rossetti (Rossetti, Christina).

      Even as a child, William Michael was in many ways a contrast to his more flamboyant brother—in his calm and rational outlook, financial prudence, and lack of egotism, for example. At 16 he became a clerk in the Excise (later Inland Revenue) Office at £80 a year and became a mainstay of the entire Rossetti family. His appointment as art critic to The Spectator magazine in 1850 and subsequent modest advancement in the civil service enabled him, in 1854, to establish his father, mother, and two sisters in a more comfortable home. In 1874 he married Emma Lucy, the daughter of the painter Ford Madox Brown (Brown, Ford Madox). William Michael retired from the Inland Revenue Office in 1894.

      William Michael had literary interests almost as varied as those of his brother. He was a member of the original Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and served as their diarist as well as the editor of their journal The Germ. He edited Christina's (1904) and Dante Gabriel's (1911) collected works and wrote D.G. Rossetti: A Memoir with Family Letters (1895). He dealt conscientiously with a vast amount of family correspondence and material relating to Pre-Raphaelism and his brother's place in the movement, proving himself an indispensable chronicler in such publications as Preraphaelite Letters and Diaries (1900) and Ruskin, Rossetti, Preraphaelitism: Papers 1854–62 (1899).

      William Michael was also an astute and independent-minded critic; he hailed Walt Whitman (Whitman, Walt)'s controversial Leaves of Grass (1855) as a work of genius and introduced that poet to British readers with a selection of his poems in 1868. He was also an early admirer of William Blake, producing an edition of his Poetical Works in 1874, and he published studies of Dante and other medieval poets, both Italian and English.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Rossetti, William Michael — (b. 1829)    Biographer, ed., etc. Translator of Dante s Hell (1865), Lives of Famous Poets (1878), Life of Keats (1887), Memoir of Dante G. Rossetti, and has ed. many poets, etc …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • William Michael Rossetti — [ Julia Margaret Cameron] William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 ndash; 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic.BiographyBorn in London, he was a son of immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and the brother of Maria… …   Wikipedia

  • William Michael Rossetti — William Michael Rossetti, fotografiert von Julia Margaret Cameron (1865) William Michael Rossetti (* 25. September 1829 in London; † 5. Februar 1919 ebenda) war ein italienisch britischer Schriftsteller und Kunstkritiker. Außerdem gehörte er zu… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Michael Rossetti — William Michael Rossetti, par Julia Margaret Cameron William Michael Rossetti (25 septembre 1829 – 5 février 1919) était un écrivain et critique littéraire anglais. Fils de Gabriele Rossetti et Frances Polidori, il est le… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • William Blake — Infobox Writer name = William Blake caption = William Blake in an 1807 portrait by Thomas Phillips. birthdate = birth date|df=yes|1757|11|28 birthplace = London, England deathdate = death date and age|df=yes|1827|08|12|1757|11|28 deathplace =… …   Wikipedia

  • Rossetti — may refer to:*Biagio Rossetti (c. 1447 1516), an architect and urbanist from Ferrara, the first to use modern methods *Stefano Rossetti (or Rossetto) (fl. 1560 1580), Italian composer to the Medici *Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti (1783 1854) …   Wikipedia

  • Rossetti — ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Biagio Rossetti (1447–1516), italienischer Architekt und Stadtplaner Christina Rossetti (1830–1894), italienisch englische Schriftstellerin Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), englischer Dichter,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Rossetti — Rossetti, 1) Gabriele, ital. Dichter und Gelehrter, geb. 1. März 1783 in Vasto, gest. 26. April 1854 in London, kam 1804 nach Neapel, wo er die Malerkunst mit der Poesie vertauschte und Konservator am königlichen Museum wurde. Die Revolution von… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Rossetti — Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, engl. Maler und Dichter, geb. 12. Mai 1828 zu London, Sohn des ital. Dichters und Dante Kommentators Gabriel R. (geb. 28. Febr. 1783, gest. 26. April 1854 zu London; »Poesie«, 1861; Kommentar zur »Divina Commedia«, Bd. 1… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Rossetti, Dante Gabriel — orig. Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti born May 12, 1828, London, Eng. died April 9, 1882, Birchington on Sea, Kent British painter and poet. Son of Gabriele Rossetti and brother of Christina Rossetti, he trained at the Royal Academy but vacillated …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”