D.G. Rossetti is buried in the Parish Church, Birchington, Kent, England.
 Gravestone of Dante Rossetti
His gravestone is a large celtic cross, made by his old friend Ford
Madox Brown. Inside the
church there is a stained glass window commemorating the
Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood.
It was designed by
Frederic Shields and was based on one of Rossetti's own paintings.
Rossetti was the son of Gabriele Rossetti and grew up in a highly
charged cultural and political household. (His sister
Christina Rossetti was also a poet.) He was
educated at King's College School in London and then studied art with
Millais and Holman Hunt. In 1848 he helped to found the Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood. In 1862 Rossetti's wife Lizzie Siddal died and was buried at Highgate
Cemetery in London along with a small book of his poetry. Six years later, when
Rossetti's
interest in poetry had grown, he made an application
to the Home Secretary to have her grave opened in order to retrieve the book. The grey
leather bound book was found intact but saturated. Rossetti also lived
for some time at 16, Cheyne Walk in Chelsea - where he shared his
accommodation with a menagerie including peacocks, kangaroos and
wombats. A.C.Swinburne was also a
joint tenant for a short period. William Morris famously said of him
that: 'Sometimes Rossetti was an angel, and sometimes he was a damned
scoundrel.' Morris apparently condoned Rossetti's affair with his
wife Jane. (She frequently modelled for Rossetti.) Rossetti spent the last few months of his life in Westcliff Bungalow,
Birchington where he went to convalesce following a seizure which left him partially paralysed. He
was in severe debt when he died and his funeral was paid for by his immediate
family.
There are also memorials to Rossetti in Hastings and
on the Embankment in London.
 Dante Rossetti (self portrait) |
