Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the artist who defined its distinctive look.
With his luminous muses, lush color, and layered symbolism, Rossetti created some of the most recognizable images in Victorian art.
This guide explores Rossetti’s most famous paintings. You’ll see there’s an intense concentration in London museums and niche collections in England and the United States.
Who Was Rossetti?
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was the most controversial figure among the Pre-Raphaelite artists. Brilliant, difficult, and deeply unconventional, he lived a bohemian life that veered into outright eccentricity.
As a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he helped push Victorian art toward the later movements of Symbolism and Aestheticism.
His early paintings are narrative and literary in subject. But, over time, he moved toward more symbolic and intensely personal imagery, focusing on mood, beauty, and spiritual longing.
Rossetti never cared much for the art establishment. Rather than exhibit at the Royal Academy, he preferred to sell through private dealers and galleries.
He was also a notorious lothario and became famous for his sensuous portrayals of women. They often appear as mysterious femme fatales or tragic, melancholy figures. Rossetti was equally drawn to medieval themes, especially Arthurian legend and courtly love.
One of his most important models was Elizabeth Siddal, often considered the quintessential Pre-Raphaelite beauty. With her pale skin and copper hair, she was frequently compared to women in early Florentine painting.
At first Siddal modeled for many of the Brotherhood artists. Eventually, though, she posed only for Rossetti.
The two married, though his affections proved unstable. He soon became involved with other women, including Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth.
Siddal struggled with fragile health and long bouts of depression. Her short life was marked by illness and disappointment. With wraith-like unexpectedness, she died from a laudanum overdose at age 32.
Her death shook Rossetti profoundly and left him with lingering guilt. Afterward, he traveled in Europe and absorbed new influences from artists such as Édouard Manet and James McNeill Whistler.
By the late 1860s, his paintings were selling well and he enjoyed a period of financial success. He filled his house with exotic objects and famously kept unusual pets.
Yet, Rossetti’s former youthful joie de vivre was gone, and he became increasingly plagued by depression, paranoia, and drinking bouts. He was convinced he was losing his eyesight and withdrew from many of his friends.
During this period, he became deeply attached to Jane Morris. She was the second madonna of the Pre-Raphaelite pantheon and became the dominant figure in his late paintings.
In his final years, Rossetti grew even more isolated, alienating former allies and effectively retreating from public life. He died in 1882.
Today, Rossetti is remembered as the painter who gave the Pre-Raphaelite movement its most unforgettable images.
Important Rossetti Paintings
Beata Beatrix
This celebrated Pre-Raphaelite painting was inspired by Vita Nuova, the poetic account of Dante Alighieri’s idealized and unattainable love for Beatrice Portinari.
Rossetti cast his own wife, Elizabeth Siddal, in the role of Beatrice. When he painted it, Siddal had been dead for two years, which gives the work the feeling of a private act of mourning. In the distance, Dante himself appears, gazing toward the beloved figure he has lost.
The painting has a dreamy, almost trance-like atmosphere. Beatrice sits with her eyes closed and her head tilted upward, as if caught between life and the afterlife. A soft glow surrounds her red hair, creating the effect of a halo.
Rossetti filled the composition with layered symbolism. A bird places a white poppy in her hands, a traditional emblem of death and sleep.
The dove and the winged figure of Love appear in deep red, suggesting both passion and sacrifice. Even the sundial in the background quietly marks the hour of Beatrice’s death.
Taken together, the painting feels less like a narrative scene and more like a vision. A meditation on love, loss, and spiritual longing.
Proserpine
📍 Tate Britain, London (several versions exist)
Proserpine was a subject Rossetti returned to repeatedly, producing at least eight versions over several years. The model was Jane Morris, the striking, dark-haired wife of William Morris.
The painting draws on the classical myth of Proserpine (Persephone), who is abducted by Pluto and taken to the underworld to become his queen. After eating a few seeds of a pomegranate, she becomes bound to that shadowy realm.
Rossetti presents her as a brooding, isolated figure. She stands in a dim corridor, holding the pomegranate that sealed her fate. Her expression is distant and contemplative, suggesting longing and quiet resignation.
The entire atmosphere feels tense and slightly unsettling. Her hands grip the fruit awkwardly, and the strange swelling at the back of her neck adds to the sense that something is off. Even the folds of her dress seem heavy and constricting, reinforcing the mood of confinement.
In this interpretation, Proserpine becomes a symbolic stand-in for Jane herself. A woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, quietly yearning for escape.
Bocca Baciata
Bocca Baciata (“The Kissed Mouth”) marks an important turning point in Rossetti’s work. The title comes from a line in Boccaccio meaning that a mouth once kissed loses none of its charm.
The model was Fanny Cornforth, a prostitute who worked for Rossetti and later became his lover. With her copper hair, pale skin, and full lips, she embodied the lush, sensual beauty Rossetti increasingly favored.
The painting focuses almost entirely on the figure’s head and shoulders. Cornforth’s heavy hair spills down around her face; roses and apples frame the composition. The rich reds and golds intensify the feeling of warmth and physical presence.
When Rossetti exhibited the painting in 1859, it startled many viewers. Unlike earlier Pre-Raphaelite works filled with moral lessons or literary narratives, Bocca Baciata seemed unapologetically sensual. It presented beauty for its own sake.
The work also marks the beginning of Rossetti’s later style. From this point on, he repeatedly painted striking female figures with abundant hair, glowing skin, and a dreamy, inward expression. In many ways, Bocca Baciata set the template for the iconic “Rossetti woman” that would dominate his later career.
The Day Dream
📍 Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Rossetti painted The Day Dream just two years before his death. It’s generally considered the last great painting of his career.
The model is again Morris, Rossetti’s longtime muse and (probable) lover. By the 1870s, she had become an almost obsessive subject for him, appearing again and again in his late paintings.
Jane sits perched among the branches of a sycamore tree, wrapped in deep green tones that echo the surrounding foliage. Her dress, a rich teal shade, closely resembles the one she wears in Proserpine, reinforcing the sense that these late works belong to the same dreamy, symbolic world.
She appears absorbed in thought, her gaze drifting outward as if something beyond the frame has caught her attention. The title invites speculation. Is the daydream hers or Rossetti’s vision of her?
Rossetti scattered the scene with symbolic details. Honeysuckle winds through the branches, a traditional emblem of love. In this context, it likely alludes to the complicated and deeply personal relationship between the artist and his model.
Veronica Veronese
📍 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
Veronica Veronese is one of the lush, atmospheric paintings Rossetti produced in the early 1870s. The model was Alexa Wilding. She sat for many of Rossetti’s most celebrated works and borrowed the green dress from Jane Morris.
The painting imagines a Renaissance musician at the instant when inspiration strikes. The young woman pauses with her hand resting on the strings of a violin, as if capturing a melody before it slips away. Her attention turns toward a small canary in a cage beside her.
Rossetti described the bird as the source of the music she is about to create. The canary’s song becomes the spark for artistic invention.
Around the figure, Rossetti layers rich textures and deep green tones, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.
Sibylla Palifera
📍Lady Lever Art gallery, Liverpool UK
This painting also features Alexa Wilding. A banker, one of Rossettti’s patrons commissioned the work.
The figure is a palm-bearing sybil. The palm branch represents victory or martyrdom. Wilding is presented like an icon, monumental and still with a halo framing her head.
There are other symbols in the painting too, including sunflowers (devotion), butterflies (the soul), and poppies (sleep).
This painting belongs to Rossetti’s late stage when his work became more monumental, intensely decorative, and dominated by powerful female figures.
Pandora
📍 Faringdon Collection, Oxford UK
Pandora features Morris as the model. Morris had only recently entered Rossetti’s circle, and the painting marks the start of their intense bond.
The subject comes from Greek mythology. Pandora was the first woman created by the gods, entrusted with a mysterious box (often called a jar in the original myth).
When she opened it, all the miseries of humanity—suffering, disease, and sorrow—escaped into the world. Only hope remained inside after she hurriedly closed it again.
Rossetti presents Pandora at the moment of discovery. She stands in a shadowy interior holding the ornate box, her expression thoughtful and almost hypnotic.
Morris’ distinctive features—her long dark hair, pale skin, and solemn gaze—give the figure an air of mystery. Rossetti often portrayed his models as mythological or allegorical figures, and here Morris becomes the embodiment of temptation, curiosity, and fate.
The theme may also have carried a more personal resonance. Pandora’s act unleashes forces that cannot be contained again, a metaphor that some scholars see as reflecting Rossetti’s own emotional life.
La Ghirlandata
📍 Guildhall Art Gallery, London
La Ghirlandata translates roughly as “The Garlanded Lady” or “Lady of the Wreath.” The model was Wilding.
The work is usually read as an idealized vision of love, beauty, and harmony. Wilding sits serenely playing a harp, her long red hair framed by a wreath of flowers.
Two angelic figures hover behind her, gathering blossoms as if attending a sacred rite. Rossetti surrounds the central figure with thick greenery and richly colored flowers, creating a lush, almost dreamlike setting.
Wilding’s deep green dress blends into the foliage around her, softening the line between the figure and the landscape. The effect makes the scene feel less like a portrait and more like a symbolic vision.
Monna Vanna
📍 Tate Britain, London
Monna Vanna belongs to the series of striking female portraits that Rossetti produced in the mid-1860s.
Wilding appears with the flowing auburn hair so beloved by the Pre-Raphaelites. Around her neck hangs a red coral necklace, a piece Rossetti reused in several of his paintings of idealized women.
Rossetti originally titled the work Venus Veneta, suggesting a Venetian beauty. He later renamed it Monna Vanna, a phrase meaning “vain woman,” drawn from Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri.
Rossetti himself regarded the painting highly. He once remarked that it was “the most effective room decoration that I have ever painted.”
Lady Lilith
📍 Delaware Art Museum
Lady Lilith is one of Rossetti’s defining “femme fatale” images. The model was Fanny Cornworth.
Lilith, drawn from Jewish folklore, was Adam’s first wife. She refused to submit to his authority and became a seductive demon figure. Rossetti portrays her not as a monster but as a dangerously beautiful woman absorbed in her own reflection.
The painting captures the iconic “Rossetti woman.” The heavy hair, pale skin, sensual lips, and languid pose became the template for many of his later female figures.
The symbolism is also classic Rossetti. The mirror suggests vanity and self-absorption. The abundant hair represents sensual power. The flowers (especially white roses) hint at beauty mixed with danger.
The Annunciation
📍Tate Britain
Painted when Rossetti was only about 20, this unique painting is one of the earliest and most radical works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The scene depicts the biblical Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary she will give birth to Christ. But Rossetti strips away the traditional grandeur. Instead of a majestic throne room or church interior, the scene unfolds in what looks like a small bedroom.
Mary sits on the edge of her bed, clearly startled and uneasy. She’s not the serene, accepting Virgin seen in High Renaissance art. She looks young, frightened, and withdrawn, pulling back as Gabriel approaches.
Victorian audiences and critics hated the painting when it debuted. They were used to idealized religious images.
Rossetti’s version looked unsettlingly real and psychological. Mary appears like an anxious teenager rather than holy and composed. Critics complained that she looked like “a girl in her nightgown.”
But that reaction was exactly the point. The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to reject the smooth formulas of academic art and return to what they saw as the honesty and intensity of early Renaissance painting.
Venus Verticordia
📍Russel Coates Art Gallery, Bournemouth UK
Venus Verticordia marks a turning point in Rossetti’s career. With this painting he moves away from the narrative subjects of early Pre-Raphaelitism and fully embraces the lush, sensual style that would define his later work.
The figure embodies Rossetti’s ideal of beauty: full lips, abundant red hair, and a hypnotic gaze. Surrounding flowers and symbolic objects reinforce the theme of desire.
Venus holds a golden apple, a reference to the Judgment of Paris and erotic temptation. The arrow alludes to Cupid and the power of love. Honeysuckle and roses further underscore the painting’s sensual undertones.
The image proved controversial. Victorian critics found its frank eroticism unsettling and morally suspect.
Dante’s Dream
📍Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool UK
Dante’s Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice is one of Rossetti’s most ambitious paintings and one of the largest works he ever completed. Painted late in his career, it illustrates a scene from Dante’s Vita Nuova.
Rossetti painted it in oils. And it’s quite large, suggesting a serious historical picture.
In the poem, Dante Alighieri dreams that he’s led to the body of his beloved Beatrice, who has just died. Dante stands at the left dressed in red, while a winged figure representing Love gently guides him toward Beatrice.
Beatrice lies on a bier as two women lift the veil covering her face. Above them, angels scatter red poppies, traditional symbols of sleep and death.
The painting also carries a deeply personal dimension. Rossetti often associated Beatrice with his own wife, who died young. Many scholars see the painting as reflecting Rossetti’s lingering grief and his lifelong obsession with Dante’s tragic love story.
The Beloved
📍Tate Britain London UK
In this painting, Rossetti draws on the Song of Solomon, the biblical poem celebrating romantic and sensual love.
A richly dressed bride stands surrounded by her attendants as she lifts her veil. The gesture suggests the moment she reveals her beauty to her bridegroom for the first time. Rossetti fills the composition with luxurious color, jewels, and fabrics, heightening the sense of sensuality and ceremony.
The painting also has striking exotic elements. The bride’s elaborate headdress, the lush flowers, and the presence of a young Black attendant all add to the visual richness and theatricality of the scene.
Some scholars have suggested that Rossetti may have been influenced by Olympia, which he saw in Paris. Like Manet’s famous painting, Rossetti’s bride confronts the viewer directly, her gaze confident and unapologetic.
A Sea Spell
📍Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge MA
A Sea-Spell shows a siren-like enchantress (Wilding) playing a small harp. The music she plays casts a spell over the sea and anyone who hears it.
Rich, saturated color fills the canvas. The shallow, flattened space gives the composition a decorative, almost dreamlike quality. The monumental half-length figure dominates the scene.
Rossetti layers the image with symbolic details. The harp suggests seduction, the bird perched nearby appears already entranced by the music, and the distant sea hints at the wider world falling under her spell.
Not everyone admired the work. One of Rossetti’s early biographers dismissed it harshly as the product of a “prematurely faltering mind.” Today, however, it’s often seen as one of the most hypnotic examples of Rossetti’s late style.
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