Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti

Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti (19 July 1843 – 12 April 1894) was a British artist, author, and model associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. She was married to the writer and art critic William Michael Rossetti.

Early life

Madox Brown was born in Paris in 1843, the daughter of Ford Madox Brown and Elizabeth Bromley (1819–1846). Her mother died just three years later in 1846, and she was sent to live with her aunt Helen Bromley in Gravesend, Kent. In 1856 she went to live with the Rossetti household in London and was tutored by her future sister-in-law, Maria Francesca Rossetti. She visited the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. Her half-sister Catherine Madox Brown described her as "a strange mixture with a violent temper and a strong brain."

Marriage and family

In the summer of 1873 she became engaged to William Michael Rossetti, and they married on 31 March 1874. William was the son of Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Polidori. His siblings were: Maria, Dante Gabriel and Christina. They honeymooned in France and Naples, Italy, in April 1874. They attempted to live with William's family but, due to religious differences with Frances and Christina, who were devout Anglo-Catholics, moved out to their own accommodation in Bloomsbury by the end of 1876.

Their first child, Olivia Frances Madox, was born in September 1875, and their son, Gabriel Arthur, was born in February 1877, followed by Helen Maria, in November 1879, and twins, Mary Elizabeth and Michael Ford, in April 1881. Michael died in infancy. Lucy and Wiliam, who both were agnostics, did not have their children baptized. The children were educated at home by their mother and governesses.