1828 Born in London. His father was an Italian political refugee and professor of Italian at King’s College, London. His mother was half Italian and half English.
1844 Rossetti enters the R. A. Schools as a probationer.
1845 He becomes a full student.
1848 Rossetti is a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood together with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti’s brother William is secretary. There are three other members, James Collinson who was courting Christina Rossetti, Thomas Woolner, a sculptor and F.G. Stephens, a friend of Hunt.
1849 Rossetti exhibits his first major oil painting, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin. Visits Paris and Flanders with Hunt. Probably meets Elizabeth Siddal.
1850 Exhibits Ecce Ancilla Domini.
1854 Becomes friendly with John Ruskin.
1855 Visits Paris for the Exposition Universelle.
1856 Meets Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.
1857 Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Morris work on murals for the Oxford Union.
1860 Marries Elizabeth Siddal.
1861 Rossetti is a founder member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. His translations for The Early Italian Poets is published.
1862 Elizabeth dies of an overdose of laudanum. Rossetti settles at 16 Cheyne Walk.
1864 Visits Paris and is introduced to a number of artists by Henri Fantin-Latour who he had met the previous year via Whistler.
1869 A relationship with Jane Morris has grown. His wife’s coffin was exhumed so that he could retrieve the poems he had placed there.
1870 Poems is published.
1871 Starts to spend much time at Kelmscott Manor.
1872 His health deteriorates. He severs many friendships.
1882 Dies at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent.
1849 The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, London, Tate
1850 Ecce Ancilla Domini, London, Tate
1863 Fazio’s Mistress, London, Tate
1865 The Blue Bower, Birmingham, Barber Institute of Fine Arts
1866 The Beloved, London, Tate
1866 Monna Vanna, London, Tate
c1868 Venus Verticordia, Bournemouth, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum
1870 Mariana, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums
c1870 Beata Beatrix, London, Tate
1872 The Bower Meadow, City of Manchester Art Galleries
1877 Astarte Syriaca, City of Manchester Art Galleries
1877 Proserpine, City of Manchester Art Galleries
1880 La Pia de’ Tolomei, University of Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art