Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Rossetti studied drawing at Henry Sass's drawing academy from 1841-45 going on to enrol at the antique School of the Royal Academy, upon leaving the R A in 1848 Rossetti studied under Ford Madox Brown.  

He was a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt.

Sketch by Rossetti for a sofa exhibited at the 1862 Exhibition by Morris & Co, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.

He became a founding member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co (later Morris & Co) in 1861 along side William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, P. P. Marshall and Philip Webb. 

Rossetti designed little furniture for the firm. The firm sold an armchair based on French vernacular chairs called the Rossetti chair. For Morris & Co he was mainly involved with painted decoration on building interiors and furniture.

Edited by Linda Parry, William Morris, 1996
Charlotte Gere and Michael Whiteway, Nineteenth Century Design, 1993