Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Rossetti, Lucy Madox

692860Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49 — Rossetti, Lucy Madox1897Richard Garnett

ROSSETTI, LUCY MADOX (1843–1894), painter, was the only daughter of Ford Madox Brown by his first marriage, and half-sister of Oliver Madox Brown [q. v.] Her mother's maiden name was Bromley. Lucy was born at Paris, 19 July 1843; her parents brought her to England in 1844, and, after her mother's death in 1846, her father definitely established himself in England. She showed no special aptitude for art until in 1868 the failure of one of Madox Brown's pupils to execute a piece of work led her to volunteer to supply his place, and her success induced her father to give her regular instruction. A watercolour drawing, ‘Après le Bal,’ exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1870, attracted much attention, and was followed by ‘Romeo and Juliet in the Vault’ (1871); ‘The Fair Geraldine’ (1872) in water-colours, and ‘Ferdinand and Miranda playing Chess’ (1872), and ‘Margaret Roper receiving the Head of her Father’ (1873). In March 1874 she married Mr. W. M. Rossetti, and thenceforth her appearances as an artist were infrequent; but she gave some attention to authorship, contributing a life of Mrs. Shelley to the ‘Eminent Women Series’ in 1890, and a memoir of her father to the ‘Magazine of Art’ in 1889. Literature, however, was not her vocation; she was a genuine artist, who would have obtained an eminent place among painters but for the interruption of her career occasioned by domestic cares. She died at San Remo in April 1894, after a long illness.

[Clayton's English Female Artists, vol. ii.; Athenæum and Art Journal for 1894; Hueffer's Life of Ford Madox Brown; personal knowledge.]

R. G.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.240
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

Page Col. Line  
289 ii 9-7 f.e. Rossetti, Lucy Madox: for and was brought up on the continent . . . brought her to England, read Her parents brought her to England in 1844, and after her mother's death, in 1846, her father definitely established himself in England.
290 i 7 for (1875) read (1873)
8 for 1874 read March 1874
13 after in 1890 insert a memoir of his father to the 'Magazine of Art' in 1889,