Christina Rossetti

Inscribed with the words ‘Golden head by golden head’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s illustration accompanied Christina Rossetti’s celebrated poem, Goblin Market in its 1865 publication. It depicts part of the poem where sisters Laura and Lizzie are curled up asleep together, emphasizing the closeness of their bond: ‘Golden head by golden head, /Like two pigeons in one nest / Folded in each other’s wings, /They lay down in their curtain’d bed.’ The goblin men can be seen through a circular window, carrying their fruits down the hill to market.

• Artist Christina Rossetti
• Artwork Goblin Market (Sisters)
• Material FSC Certified paper and wood
• Date of work 1865
• Credit Original: Goblin Market 1865 ‘After Dante Gabriel Rossetti’ Wood engravings Tate. Library & Archive (London, UK)_x000D_

Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) was an English poet. Educated at home by her mother, Rossetti was a prolific writer, and had her poems published at the age of 18. Her first commercially printed book of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems, 1862, was very favourably received by critics and contemporaries, who declared her the successor to Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She sat for her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti for several of his paintings, notably The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, 1848–9 and Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation), 1849–50, both part of Tate’s collection. Her poetry is enduringly popular, and has influenced other writers and poets including Virginia Woolf and Philip Larkin. Her verses have also been adapted by composers such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Gustav Holst.

• Product Code S22369