“The main ambition of the exhibition is to reveal these artists to a 21st century audience and to look at them through 21st century eyes,” says Carol Jacobi, curator of the upcoming Tate Britain exhibition. The Rossetti. “There are so many myths that have gotten mixed up with the Rossetti, but we want to show them in a new light. There are so many human and engaging things about work, and still very relevant today.
The Tate exhibition is – surprisingly for an institution so tied to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood exhibition – its first to focus on Dante Gabriel Rossetti, arguably the most popular and important British painter of the mid- victorian. But he also seeks to establish the network of talents with which he has associated himself: principally, his sister Christina, one of the most successful poets of the 19th century; his brother William Michael, a critic and editor who expounded the fundamentals of the Brotherhood; and Elizabeth Siddal, initially well known as the model for some of Rossetti’s most sublime images, but increasingly recognized as an influential artist in her own right.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ecce Ancilla Domini (The Annunciation) (1849-50), with Christina Rossetti © Tate
Although the Pre-Raphaelites never really lost their popularity, it’s fair to say that the shadow of their dramatic personal lives and obsessive focus (at least in Dante Gabriel) on the idealized female form has meant that serious critical attention has drifted elsewhere. Jacobi says the band’s concerns resonate with contemporary audiences. “Everyone, including the men, was defined by the gender roles of the time; we may think we’ve moved on, but the fact is, it’s not as much as we’d like. This challenge [of traditional gender roles]and the inventive ways they have found to circumvent them, is exciting to explore. »
Jacobi points to the experience of Siddal – one of a group of working-class women hired by Dante Gabriel as role models – as central. “His art was much more concise and earthy and in touch with the physical realities of life than we might expect,” she says. “Some of the stories she chose to illustrate were very bold.” Jacobi highlights the play of the show on the mutual influence of Siddal and Dante Gabriel, working side by side in the immediate aftermath of the Pre-Raphaelite flowering, in a creativity of “call and response”. “Together they created this incredible body of work, little medieval fantasy worlds where they explored bold questions about love,” she says.
The Childhood of Mary Virgin (1848-49) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti © Tate
One of the show’s challenges is showing Christina’s verses, Jacobi says. The Tate chose to create a “forest of poems”, including readings by actress Diana Quick, and to show works that shed light on issues of class and gender. His most famous poem, goblin market, evolved from her volunteer work at a shelter for former prostitutes. Christina (also the model for her brother’s paintings The Childhood of Mary Virgin And Ecce Ancilla Domini (The Annunciation), both 1849-1850) interrogates, according to Jacobi, the themes of “love in the material age, the Victorian idea of the ‘fallen woman’ and the buying and selling of sex”. Siddal, likewise, made the design Pippa passes (1854), which, says Jacobi, “looks at the experience of walking down the street and encounters with women who sold sex”, alongside the image of Dante Gabriel, Find (1854), on a similar theme.
“The stories they tell are very human about love and relationships – not just romantic relationships, but between children and parents, between siblings, between friends, falling out and how to move on after loss,” said Jacobi.
• The RossettiTate Britain, London, 6 April-24 September
