Dante Gabriel Rossetti: 11 works

'Instead he wanted the picture to have a supernatural realism.White is the dominant colour here, communicating the idea of feminine purity. This is reinforced by the lily embroidery - the same one the Virgin is shown making in Rossetti's painting of The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, on display nearby.'

'By 1852 she was working exclusively for painter-poet Rossetti and became his lover and his pupil.'

'Rossetti saw this work as a memorial to his wife, Elizabeth Siddall, who had died in 1862.'

'Part of the appeal of this work is its personal subject matter: the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicted himself as St George and his lover Elizabeth Siddal as the princess.'

'Rossetti, both a poet and a painter, drew his subject matter from the Bible, Greek mythology, Dante and Shakespeare in his creation of works filled with Romantic poetic sensibility that feature images of the "femme fatale."'

'This painting is the only large-scale example of Rossetti's work to grapple with the principles most relevant to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in its early years.'

'Kelmscott Manor, the home that Morris and Rossetti jointly leased during the summer of 1871, is shown in the left background.'

'She was married to Dante Gabriel Rossetti's friend William Morris and was also Rossetti's lover.'

'Rossetti completed the sonnet entitled La Bella Mano a year after the painting, suggesting the visual representation may have been the inspiration for the poem.'

'Although the model for this painting has not been identified, it may have been Rossetti's housemaid, whose name has come down to us in the present day only as "Mary." She personifies the archetypical Pre-Raphaelite notion of beauty with her red hair, large lips, and enticing brown eyes.'

'The sitter for this painting was Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris, who often posed for Rossetti.'