Rossetti, Christina Georgina (1830–1894)

A photograph of the English artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti with his mother and sisters, taken by Lewis Carroll in their garden at Cheyne Walk, 1863. All the children of the family became famous in the arts: Christina (far left) was a poet, Maria was a writer, Dante Gabriel was a painter and poet, and William (not pictured) was a literary critic. Of the four, Dante Gabriel and Christina are the best known.

The poet Christina Rossetti, sister of the famous Pre-Raphaelite artist, Dante Gabrielle Rossetti. Christina's own reputation has soared in recent years. Despite the reclusive piety of her biography, Rossetti's 1862 poem, ‘Goblin market’, with its daringly explicit and sensual imagery, is regarded by many as a masterpiece of modern sexual radicalism.

English poet and a devout High Anglican (see Oxford movement). Her best-known work is Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862); among others are The Prince's Progress (1866), Annus Domini (1874), and A Pageant (1881). She was the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Michael Rossetti. Her verse expresses unfulfilled spiritual yearning and frustrated love. She was a skilful technician and made use of irregular rhyme and line length.

Christina was the daughter of an Italian patriot, educated at home, and sharing in the youthful writings of her brothers. Her first recorded poem was completed at the age of 12. In 1847 a volume of her verses was privately printed, and in 1850, using the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne, she contributed to the famous but short-lived periodical The Germ (which was linked to the artistic theory of the group of painters the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood). The sadness that pervades her writing may be due to an unhappy love affair in her youth, and to the ill health she constantly suffered.