Biography for William Michael Rossetti

Employment

Art critic. Son of Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti (1783-1854) and Frances Mary Lavinia (1800-1886). Rossetti was educated at King's College School, London and joined the Excise Office in 1845. He is best known for his prolific writing on the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and as the brother of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882).

William Michael Rossetti became the seventh member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. He acted as secretary to the group and modelled for William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) and Dante Gabriel. Rossetti documented the group's development in what became known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Journal and edited The Germ. He contributed to major publications such as The Critic, The Spectator, The Academy and The Saturday Review. In collaboration with Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), Rossetti wrote Royal Academy Notes in 1868.

William Michael married Lucy Madox Brown (1843-1894) in 1874. Following the deaths of Dante Gabriel, he documented his brother's achievements in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1886, 1891, 1904, and 1911) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family Letters with a Memoir (2 vols., 1895).