Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sonnet (1880, illustration)
Rossetti, Sonnet, Illustration

Description: 

Rossetti Archive logo

A variant of this description was originally published at The Rossetti Archive at this location

This is the original, pen-and-ink illuminated text drawing that Dante Gabriel Rossetti made for his mother's birthday. The drawing was laid into the front of a copy of David Main's Treasury of English Sonnets (1881), which had laid into the back a birthday poem by Christina Rossetti. Brother and sister then presented the book to their mother. Both signature and date are inscribed at lower left: DG Rossetti pro matre fecit, Apr: 27. 1880. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Production History

DGR executed this illuminated work in March and April 1880. It was first published in 1882 as the frontispiece to William Sharp's DGR: A Record and a Study. Several interesting proof copies survive.

How to Cite this Web Page (MLA format)

McGann, Jerome. "Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sonnet (1880, illustration)." Omnibus Edition of  Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "The Sonnet." Eds. Dino Franco Felluga, Elizabeth Helsinger, Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, and Jerome McGann. The COVE: The Central Online Victorian Educator, covecollective.org. [Here, add your last date of access to The COVE].

Associated Place(s)

Layers

Timeline of Events Associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Sonnet (1880, illustration)

Gabriele Rossetti marries

10 Apr 1826

On 10 April 1826, Gabriele Rossetti (Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti's father) marries Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori.

Birth of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

12 May 1828

On 12 May 1828, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born as Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti. His parents were Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti, an Italian émigré scholar, and Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori (the sister of John William Polidori). Rossetti would go on to form the influential literary and artistic group, The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Image: Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: albumen print. This photograph, from 7 October 1863, was reproduced as the frontispiece of: Rossetti, William Michael, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer. London: Cassell and Company, 1898.

Death of Gabriele Rossetti

26 Apr 1854

Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti (father of Dante Gabriel, Christina Georgina, William Michael and Maria Francesca Rossetti) died on 26 April 1854 at 45 Upper Albany St. (now 166 Albany St.).

Gabriele Rossetti marries

Birth of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Death of Gabriele Rossetti

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Artist: 

  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Image Date: 

27 Apr 1880