rossetti more context

1.

Dates of birth and death

• 5th December 1830, London
• 29th December 1894 (breast cancer, having been diagnosed in 1892).

2.

Early life

• Youngest of 4 children, who were largely self-supporting, especially in terms of relationships. Educated at home by the mother
• Born to poet and political exile Gabriele Rosetti (Italian immigrant who maintained deep attachment to his native country) and Frances Polidori.
• Christina grew up bilingual
• Household was frequently home to politically engaged Italians and lively debate on political and artistic topics
• Dante – founder of Pre-Raphaelite movement, illustrator and editor to some of Christina's poems. Challenged Classical influence of Raphael, emphasis on intense colours, inspiration in mediaeval culture, Romantic poetry. Christina rejected the development of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, refusing to have her poetry read at their meetings (although she had sat for Dante's earlier paintings).
• Maria – eldest of four, who eventually became a nun.
• William supported Christina financially for most of her life.
• Vivacious in her youth, and known for her tempestuous and fractious nature – but grew to be considered overscrupulous and excessively restrained.
• Mother strongly religious; family converted in 1840s from Evangelical faith to Anglo-Catholicism with the Oxford Movement.
• Regular visits to Grandfather's countryside estate and to zoo at Regent's Park fostered deep love of natural world – hence detailed engagement with nature in her work. Reinforced by visits to Italy and the 'unimaginable beauties and grandeur of nature' in the lakes (linking with sense of affinity with Italy).
• In adolescence, Christina suffered from a variety of ailments, diagnosed as a heart condition but potentially psychosomatic in nature, e.g. breathlessness, heart palpitations, other symptoms of anxiety. Illness relevant to morbidity often observed in her poems.

3.

Blokes

• James Collinson – member of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Worshipped at same Anglican church as Christina, but soon converted to Roman Catholicism – his first proposal was declined but he was accepted after his re-conversion to Protestantism in 1848. However, he re-re-converted to Roman Catholicism and the marriage was called off. Some biographers doubt whether Christina was in fact in love with him.
• 
  

4.

Engagement with social issues

• No direct alignment with politics (possibly as a reaction to the home environment).
• Deep concern and compassion for others – volunteered as a nurse in Crimean War but rejected; worked at St Mary Magdalene's Penitentiary for Fallen Women from 1859 and later for House of Charity at Highgate.
• 1863 – donated 'A Royal Princess', a work with a theme of social inequality, to an anthology published for the relief of workers in Lancashire.
• Spoke passionately against slavery, military aggression, child prostitution, and vivisection (performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research).
• In favour of female suffrage, but advocated valuing genders equally but accepting their differences ('her office is to be man's helpmeat' – 1879). Not a feminist in this respect.
• Against any radical questioning of the status quo.

5.

Deaths in her family

• 1854 – father, after Christina had been his main carer
• 1876 – Marie, due to cancer
• 1882 – Dante Gabriel
• 1886 – mother
• Aunts in 1890 and 1893