William and Lucy
The Other Rossettis
The marriage of William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) and Lucy Madox Brown (1843-1894) united two of the most resonant Pre-Raphaelite family names. Their passionate and ultimately tragic relationship provides a fresh perspective on 19th-century marriage and on the private lives of eminent Victorians. Sibling of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, William was one of the original Pre-Raphaelite "Brothers", a Bohemian, radical author, poet, critic, artist, connoisseur, biographer, historian and taxman. Lucy, the intense, intellectual daughter of Ford Madox Brown, was an ambitious artist and biographer of Mary Shelley in spite of struggling with tuberculosis for nearly a decade. Drawing on hundreds of previously unpublished sources and a wealth of visual material (including art by William, Lucy and others of their circle and striking contemporary photographs), the book follows William and Lucy through their separate professional careers, marriage, continental travels and Lucy's illness and death. At the crossover between art history, literary criticism, social history and biography, the book rewrites Pre-Raphaelite history and brings to life two fascinating people who were both of their time and ahead of it.
About the Author
Angela Thirlwell is an independent scholar, who has written widely about the Pre-Raphaelites.
Reviews
"a wonderfully illuminating study of a whole slice of 19th-century cultural, social and intellectual life" – Kathryn Hughes, Guardian
"One of the great strengths of this double biography of William and Michael Rossetti and his artist wife, Lucy, daughter of Ford Madox Brown, is the amount of hitherto unpublished images the author has tracked down... The most immediately striking and novel aspect of Thirlwell's book is its thematic structure" – Burlington Magazine
"One of Thirlwell's skills as a biographer is that she can present so much detailed material in such a leisurely manner that it feels entirely natural" – The Art Book
"...a delicious slice of social and cultural life in the second half of the 19th Century" – The Mail on Sunday
