Considering the significance of his artistic contributions, it is peculiar that Dante Gabriel Rossetti is relatively unknown. Rossetti challenged what was considered acceptable art in a manner unseen in modern art (Andres, "Dante Gabriel Rossetti"). Rossetti established the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1843, which revolutionized Victorian art and literature (Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood"). However, it wasn’t until 1853, after the Brotherhood fell apart that Rossetti truly found his calling as an artist.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, originally named Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, was born on May 12, 1828 in London, England. His father was an Italian expatriate and Dante scholar who was exiled because he wrote poetry in support of the Neapolitan Constitution of 1819. Rossetti grew up as a part of a very talented family, although he is considered to be the most talented. His older sister “Maria Rossetti, published A Shadow of Dante (1871) and became an Anglican nun; William Michael Rossetti was along with his brother an active member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and became an editor, man of letters, and memoirist; the youngest, Christina Georgina Rossetti, became an important and influential lyric poet” (Poetry Foundation, "Dante Gabriel Rossetti"). Rossetti received a general educated at the King’s College junior …show more content…
The main source of paintings at the time was the Royal Academy of Art, which taught young artists to paint in the style of the Italian Renaissance painter, Raphael. Raphael believed it was the duty of the artist to depict their subject in the most idealized way possible. This lead to a lack of realism in Raphaelite paintings, which was fine in the pre-industrial revolution era, when the main market for paintings was the nobility, who wanted family portraits or important historical, military, or religious