Rossetti, pre the Pre-Raphaelites
4 March – 24 December 2019

To celebrate the acquisition of the generous gift of a large number of early Rossetti sketches, we are launching our new exhibition in the Daisy Room in the Manor.

With information from Lady Mander’s seminal biography, ‘Portrait of Rossetti’, see how Rossetti’s early art and poetry developed into the style we celebrate today.

The style of Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti is well known around the world, but what do we know of his early work and influences that made his art so iconic?

Wightwick Manor was home to the Mander family (1887 – 1988) who filled it with their love for Victorian art and design, in particular Pre Raphaelite art collected in the mid-20th century at a time when it was deeply unfashionable. The house is filled with furniture and textiles from the Arts and Crafts movement along with some fine examples of paintings by leading Pre Raphaelite artists including Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Now, thanks to a gift accepted in lieu of inheritance tax, 52 drawings by Rossetti from his early career have been acquired by the National Trust.

More than 20 of these pictures will be on display to the public for the first time, in a new exhibition in the Daisy Room which will explore the young Rossetti before he helped to establish the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, his interest in literature and his developing style. The exhibition is being funded from a legacy left to the National Trust from a friend of Lady Mander.

To find out more, visit the website