The Rossettis, Tate Britain, review ★★★★★

We all know what to expect from a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition - dramatic paintings, often with a redheaded woman at the centre. Well that’s not what we get when entering an exhibition on the Rosettis at Tate Britain, while there is one work on show opposite the entrance it’s surrounded by poetry – written on the walls and emanating from ceiling mounted speakers when you step under them in a very clever use of technology.

This is the poetry of Christina Rossetti and it’s quite the curatorial curveball to open with her writing given Tate Britain holds a vast collection of works by her older brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti and we are in an art gallery after all.

The art then follows but it all feels rather timid with small drawings and works of ink on paper to tell the story of the four Rossetti siblings and the Pre-Raphaelite circle that surrounded them, the muses and the relationships. Dante Gabriel is renowned for big brash works and it doesn’t translate well to a smaller scale and it shows as a lot of his smaller works are largely forgettable. The one exception being an illustration of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ as a raven hugs the top of the work - staring down at the protagonist of the poem.

There are interesting stories highlighting that Elizabeth Siddall was an accomplished artist and more than just a muse - best known for her floating pose as Ophelia in the painting by John Everett Millais. The curators rightly also draw attention to the artists’ problematic approach to Orientalism and the use of a young black child in drawings and a painting.

Yet throughout the exhibition what’s missing is the epic paintings that Dante Gabriel Rossetti created and visitors will turn every corner expecting to see them – this show holds out and only gives us what we came for right at the end. His paintings of beautiful red-headed women in dramatic scenes are largely confined to one room and they are stunning but it’s not enough to lift up an exhibition that’s rather tedious outside this one room.

The ending of the exhibition is rather bizarre as a photograph and a graphic novel are thrown in at the end to show how the Pre-Raphaelites inspired contemporary art – it’s so light-touch it feels like an afterthought.

It’s a shame as a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition feels like it should be a slam dunk for Tate Britain and yet this show is a disappointing miss.

Second image: Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935
Third image: copyright Tate.