DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI: AN ILLUSTRATED MEMORIAL OF HIS ART AND LIFE, WITH DOZENS OF PLATES OF HIS WORK, HANDSOMELY BOUND

(ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel) MARILLIER, H.C. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life. London: George Bell & Son, 1904. Octavo, contemporary full dark green morocco, raised bands, all edges gilt. $650.

Third edition, abridged and revised, of this biography of Rossetti, focusing on his art and life, with dozens of black-and-white plates depicting his work, handsomely bound by Riviere & Son.

Englishman Dante Gabriel Rossetti was not only a “superb poet,” but also a supremely talented illustrator and painter whose “strange genius is evident” in all of his work (Kunitz & Haycraft, 534-45). As founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he was a powerful influence on a younger generation of artists that included William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His art frequently touched on the mythological and romantic and it was he who contributed greatly to bringing the Arthurian legend back to life. Though his work began in the medievalist tradition, he eventually found a home in European Symbolism, drawing on the work of Titian and other High Renaissance artists and executing his paintings in oil. Toward the end of his life, Rossetti’s achievements were notable, despite failing health and an addiction to chloral hydrate. He completed one of his finest works, The Blessed Damozel, as well as an accomplished sonnet sequence called The House of Life. Booklabel of internationally recognized book collector Abel E. Berland. Among his 530 treasures were one copy of each of the four Shakespeare folios. “Berland kept none of his books behind glass to be venerated. They were all on open shelves in his library, to be lived with, touched and enjoyed. ‘The most important thing I can say to you about these books is that I never take them for granted… I am nothing more than their temporary keeper. It is my privilege to visit with them every day, and to be in their company” (New York Times).

Scattered foxing to interior, extremities of binding toned to brown. A near-fine copy, handsomely bound.