author
Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti
1843–1894
A painter, writer, and model in the Pre-Raphaelite circle, she brought both artistic talent and a sharp literary voice to a remarkable creative family. Her life linked the worlds of Ford Madox Brown, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Michael Rossetti, yet her own work still stands out.
1 Audiobook
Mrs. Shelley
by Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti
About the author
Born in Paris on July 19, 1843, Lucy Madox Brown was the daughter of the painter Ford Madox Brown. After her mother's death when Lucy was very young, she grew up in England in a household shaped by art, literature, and close ties to the Pre-Raphaelites.
She painted in watercolor and oil, often drawing on literary and historical subjects, and she also wrote fiction and memoir-like work. In 1874 she married the writer and critic William Michael Rossetti, becoming Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti; together they moved within one of the best-known artistic circles of Victorian Britain.
She is often remembered through her famous family connections, but she was more than a muse or relation. Lucy Madox Brown Rossetti was an artist and author in her own right, with a life that reflects both the opportunities and the limits faced by creative women in the nineteenth century. She died in Sanremo, Italy, on April 12, 1894.