Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
English Author and Painter (1828- 1882). Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, poet, painter and translator, and commonly known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was born in London in 1828, his father being an Italian who had settled in England. While yet a boy Rossetti manifested æsthetic leanings, and accordingly he was sent to study drawing under no less distinguished a preceptor than Cotman, while shortly afterwards he entered the Royal Academy Schools. Then in 1848, feeling the need of still further tuition, he commenced working at the studio of Ford Madox Brown, a master who undoubtedly influenced him greatly; and while under Brown's tuition he began to show himself a painter of distinct individuality, while simultaneously he made his first essays in translating Italian literature into English, and became known among his friends as a poet of rare promise. Meanwhile, however, Rossetti was really more interested in the brush than in the pen, and soon after finally quitting Brown's studio he brought about a memorable event in the history of English painting, this being the founding of the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, a body consisting of seven members whose central aim was to render precisely and literally every separate object figured in their pictures. Leaving his father's house in 1849, Rossetti went to live at Chatham Place, Blackfriars Bridge, and during the next ten years his activity as a painter was enormous; while the year 1860 is a notable one in his career, marked as it is by his marriage to Eleanor Siddal. The love between the pair was of an exceptionally passionate order and from it sprang Rossetti's immortal sonnet-sequence called The House of Life, published in 1881; but Mrs. Rossetti died in 1862, and thereupon the poet, terribly cast down by his bereavement, went to live at a house in Chelsea with Swinburne and Meredith. Here he continued to write fitfully, while in 1871 he completed one of his most famous pictures, Dante's Dream; yet the loss of his wife preyed upon him persistently, he was tortured by insomnia, and in consequence he began to take occasional doses of chloral. Gradually this practice developed into a habit, sapping alike the physical and mental strength of the poet; and though he rallied for a while during a stay in Scotland, where he lived at Penkill Castle in Ayrshire, it soon became evident that his death was imminent unless he eschewed his drug. But he had not the strength of will necessary for this abjuration, he died in 1882 at Birchington, and his remains were interred in the cemetery there. 66 Rossetti had a marked bias for mysticism in various forms. William Bell Scott, in his Autobiography, tells how the poet became at one time much enamoured of tableturning and the like; while waiving his somewhat childish taste herein, his temperament was undoubtedly a very religious one, and once towards the close of his life he declared that he had seen and heard those that died long ago." Was it, then, a belief in the possibility of communicating with the dead which induced him, on his wife's death, to have some of his love poems enclosed in the coffin of the deceased? while, be the answer to this question what it may, Rossetti's mysticism certainly bore good fruit in his art, his Rose Mary being among the most beautiful of English poems introducing the supernatural element. Nevertheless, it is by his painting rather than by his poetry that Rossetti holds a place as a great mystic; for, despite his fondness for precise handling, all his pictures with the exception of Found are essentially of a mystical nature; they are not concerned with the tangible and visible world, but body forth the scenes and incidents beheld in dreams, and do this with a mastery reflected by no other kindred works save those of Blake.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Dante Gabriel (1828-1882), an English poet and painter. He was the son of Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian poet. The younger Rossetti was born in London. He studied art at the Antique School of the Royal Academy. He became noted as one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which was warmly supported by Madox Brown and by Ruskin. Rossetti's most famous associates in the brotherhood were Millais and Holman Hunt. Rossetti painted in both oil and water colors. His principal paintings include Dante's Dream, Salutation of Beatrice, Dying Beatrice, Blessed Damozel, and Monna Vanna. Many designs were left unfinished. Rossetti's pictures were seldom exhibited so that his reputation depends upon the judgment of those who have had access to the private collection. This judgment is, for the most part, enthusiastic. Critics give him a high place among English poets. His contributions to literature include translations of the earlier Italian poets and a volume of ballads, songs, and sonnets.