![]() ![]() ![]() All depict the more sanguine, serious Christina, and she figures as the model for the young Virgin Mary in two of his defining Pre-Raphaelite paintings, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848–9, Tate Britain) and Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation) (1849, Tate Britain). The sketch is by brother Dante Gabriel, who also made several other drawings and paintings of her. The caricature’s appeal lies in the incongruity between Christina Rossetti the reclusive, modest, devout Anglo-Catholic who sought (in the title of one of her poems) the ‘lowest place’, and the Christina Rossetti portrayed who is energetically taking a hammer to the furniture. My favourite Pre-Raphaelite drawing shows Christina Rossetti smashing up the drawing room in apparent rage at reviews of her first published volume, Goblin Market, and Other Poems (1862, Wightwick Manor). ![]()
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