St Catherine

1850s

A new watercolour and pen-and-ink technique

Translations of Italian poetry and Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” inspired Rossetti’s art of the 1850s: he created a method of painting in watercolours with thick pigments mixed with gum to give rich effects like medieval illuminations, and developed a novel pen-and-ink drawing technique.

1854–1862

Teaches drawing and painting to the lower classes

From 1854 to 1862 Rossetti taught drawing and painting at the first educational institution in England for the lower classes of society.

1855

First published illustration: “The Maids of Elfen-Mere”

Rossetti’s first published illustration was “The Maids of Elfen-Mere” (1855), for a poem by his friend William Allingham.

1856–1857

Meets Morris and Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, who did not know Rossetti but were much influenced by his works, met him by recruiting him as a contributor to their Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, which Morris founded in 1856; in February 1857 Rossetti wrote that they had become very intimate friends of his and called Burne-Jones’s designs marvels of finish.

1857

The Burden sisters sit for the murals

For the Oxford Union murals Rossetti recruited two sisters, Bessie and Jane Burden, as models; Jane became Morris’s wife in 1859.

1857

Illustrations for the “Moxon Tennyson”

In 1857 Rossetti contributed two illustrations to Edward Moxon’s edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Poems; the publisher had envisioned Royal Academicians as illustrators, but once Millais became involved and recruited Hunt and Rossetti, the whole production of the book was reshaped.