Editing Dante Gabriel Rossetti (section)

===Cheyne Walk years===
{{More citations needed|section|date=May 2017}}
[[File:16 Cheyne Walk 04.JPG|thumb|His home at 16 [[Cheyne Walk]], London]]
[[File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - La viuda romana (Dîs Manibus).jpg|thumb|''[[Roman Widow (Rossetti)|The Roman Widow]]'' (1874), [[Museo de Arte de Ponce]], Puerto Rico]]
[[File:Henry Treffry Dunn Rossetti and Dunton at 16 Cheyne Walk.jpg|thumb|Rossetti reading proofs of ''Ballads and Sonnets'' at 16 [[Cheyne Walk]], by [[Henry Treffry Dunn]] (1882)]]
[[File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Day Dream - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Day Dream (painting)|The Day Dream]]'' (1880). The sitter is Jane Morris.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/picture.aspx?id=6197|title=The Day Dream|publisher=www.artmagick.com|access-date=15 August 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218104125/http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/picture.aspx?id=6197|archive-date=18 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/1981|title=Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 'The Day Dream'|publisher=www.vam.ac.uk|access-date=15 August 2016}}</ref>]]
[[File:Alexa Wilding (1879) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.jpg|thumb|[[Alexa Wilding]] (1879)]]

After the death of his wife, Rossetti leased a Tudor House at 16, [[Cheyne Walk]], in Chelsea,<ref name="vch">{{cite web |title=Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea Pages 102-106 A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp102-106 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History, 2004 |access-date=21 December 2022}}</ref> where he lived for 20 years surrounded by extravagant furnishings and a parade of exotic birds and animals.<ref>Todd (2001), p. 107.</ref> Rossetti was fascinated with [[wombat]]s, asking friends to meet him at the "Wombat's Lair" at the [[London Zoo]] in [[Regent's Park]], and spending hours there. In September 1869, he acquired the first of two pet wombats, which he named "Top". It was brought to the dinner table and allowed to sleep in the large centrepiece during meals. Rossetti's fascination with exotic animals continued throughout his life, culminating in the purchase of a [[llama]] and a [[toucan]], which he dressed in a cowboy hat and trained to ride the llama round the dining-table for his amusement.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nla.gov.au/grants/haroldwhite/papers/atrumble.html |title=National Library of Australia. |access-date=25 March 2009 |archive-date=6 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606012521/http://www.nla.gov.au/grants/haroldwhite/papers/atrumble.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Rossetti maintained [[Fanny Cornforth]] (described delicately by William Allington as Rossetti's "housekeeper")<ref>Todd (2001), p. 109.</ref> in her own establishment nearby in Chelsea, and painted many voluptuous images of her between 1863 and 1865.<ref>Todd (2001), p. 113.</ref>

In 1865, he discovered auburn-haired [[Alexa Wilding]], a dressmaker and would-be actress who was engaged to model for him on a full-time basis and sat for ''[[Veronica Veronese]]'', ''[[The Blessed Damozel]]'', ''[[A Sea–Spell]]'', and other paintings.<ref name="Todd116">Todd (2001), p. 116.</ref><ref name="Pedrick130">Pedrick (1964), p. 130</ref> She sat for more of his finished works than any other model, but comparatively little is known about her due to the lack of any romantic connection with Rossetti. He spotted her one evening in the [[Strand, London|Strand]] in 1865 and was immediately struck by her beauty. She agreed to sit for him the following day, but failed to arrive. He spotted her again weeks later, jumped from the cab he was in and persuaded her to go straight to his studio. He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might employ her.<ref>Dunn, ''Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his circle'', ed. Mander, (1984) p. 46.</ref> They shared a lasting bond; after Rossetti's death Wilding was said to have travelled regularly to place a wreath on his grave.<ref>Spencer-Longhurst, ''The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s'' (2006).</ref>

Jane Morris, whom Rossetti had used as a model for the Oxford Union murals he painted with William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in 1857, also sat for him during these years, she "consumed and obsessed him in paint, poetry, and life".<ref name="Todd116" /> Jane Morris was also photographed by [[John Robert Parsons]], whose photographs were painted by Rossetti.  In 1869, Morris and Rossetti rented a country house, [[Kelmscott Manor]] at [[Kelmscott]], Oxfordshire, as a summer home, but it became a retreat for Rossetti and Jane Morris to have a long-lasting and complicated liaison. They spent summers there with the Morrises' children, while William Morris travelled to [[Iceland]] in 1871 and 1873.<ref>Todd (2001), pp. 123–30.</ref>

During these years, Rossetti was prevailed upon by friends, in particular [[Charles Augustus Howell]], to exhume his poems from his wife's grave which he did, collating and publishing them in 1870 in the volume ''Poems by D. G. Rossetti''. They created controversy when they were attacked as the epitome of the [[Fleshly school|"fleshly school of poetry"]]. Their eroticism and sensuality caused offence. One poem, "Nuptial Sleep", described a couple falling asleep after sex. It was part of Rossetti's [[sonnet sequence]] ''The House of Life'', a complex series of poems tracing the physical and spiritual development of an intimate relationship. Rossetti described the sonnet form as a "moment's monument", implying that it sought to contain the feelings of a fleeting moment, and reflect on their meaning. ''The House of Life'' was a series of interacting monuments to these moments – an elaborate whole made from a [[mosaic]] of intensely described fragments. It was Rossetti's most substantial literary achievement.

The 1870 collection ''Poems'' included some translations, such as his "Ballad Of Dead Ladies",<!-- http://www.bartleby.com/246/735.html, http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/1-1881.1stedn.rad.html#p279 --> an 1869 translation of [[François Villon]]'s poem "[[Ballade des dames du temps jadis]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rossetti |first=Dante Gabriel |title=Poems |publisher=[[Frederick Startridge Ellis|F. S. Ellis]] |year=1870 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=177–8}}</ref>  (The word "[[wikt:yesteryear|yesteryear]]" is credited to Rossetti as a neologism used for the first time in this translation.)

In 1881, Rossetti published a second volume of poems, ''Ballads and Sonnets'', which included the remaining sonnets from ''The House of Life'' sequence.