Dante Gabriel Rossetti's early correspondence reveals artistic ambitions and financial struggles.
Young Dante Gabriel Rossetti writes to family members, art patrons, and fellow poets while striving to establish himself in mid-nineteenth-century London. His correspondence details the labor behind early paintings like The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, constant requests for monetary advances from his brother William, and intense enthusiasm for Keats and Malory. The letters document how aesthetic ideals clashed immediately with commercial reality, as canvas costs and studio rent pressed constantly upon the young Brotherhood.
