Dante Gabriel Rosetti was born in London in 1828 the son of Neapolitan political exiles. Rosetti's greatest contribution to art history would be in his founding of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. These artists wished to capture the mediaeval romance of knights in armor and enchanted fairy- tale like lands. This theme in art was essentially found in the art prior to the Renaissance and prior to the great master Raphael, therefore it was termed Pre-Raphaelite.

The Pre-Raphaelites turned away from Realism, the major tendency in art at the time. Realism focused on the working class, the industrial age. The Pre-Raphaelites found Realism ugly and gritty, they were more intent to focus on a world filled with beautiful images and themes.

Rosetti could be regarded as a late Romantic because of his love of the classics, the writing's of Virgil and Dante. His paintings, as well as the poetry he has written, are often sensuous and erotic. This tendency toward the erotic can be found in art throughout the Victorian period, especially in that of the English.

Rosetti married Elizabeth Siddal, one of the favorite models of the Pre-Raphaelites. Siddal would die of a laudanum overdose and Rosetti would eventually fall in love with another model. She was the wife of friend and fellow Pre Raphaelite William Morris. Jane Burden Morris is the model seen most frequently in Rosetti's works ( including "Proserpine". )

Rosetti and the Pre-Raphaelite's choice of models changed the image of the ideal female form during the Victorian period. For centuries the ideal female form had been represented by the full figured, rosy cheeked woman. Because of the influence of the Pre Raphaelites and the Victorian classicists the pale, tall and thin, long-necked, long haired, frail adolescent girl became the epitome of beauty during the late 19th century.