Self-Portrait 1870

This is Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s self-portrait, created with pen and ink. Rossetti, a leading figure in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, lived during a time of significant social and artistic change in Victorian England. Rossetti's identity as both an artist and a man is palpable in this work. The intensity of his gaze and meticulous detail in capturing his features provide us with an intimate sense of the artist's presence. But what does it mean to really ‘see’ someone, especially when that person is an artist attempting to define themselves within a society undergoing rapid transformation? Rossetti, son to an exiled Italian scholar, grappled with questions of cultural identity and artistic purpose, and his self-portrait serves as a site where such questions emerge, prompting us to reflect on our own perceptions of self and other.