Frances Polidori
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Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, later Rossetti, (c. 1801 - 8 April 1886) is noted for her family connections rather than in her own right; in particular, two of her children were co-founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and another became a famous poet.
Frances was the daughter of Italian exile Gaetano Polidori and sister of John Polidori, Lord Byron's physician. Although she was strictly Anglican herself, she married the Roman Catholic Italian exile Gabriele Rossetti in London. After Gabriele died she quickly burned the remaining copies of his book Il Mistero dell' Amor Platonico del Medio Evo.
Her oldest child, Maria, wrote a book about Dante Alighieri and later became an Anglican nun.
Her two sons, Gabriel Charles Dante (later known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti) and William Michael were among the co-founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Frances sat to Gabriel for some of his early paintings, for example, The Girlhood of Mary, Virgin, in which she modelled for Saint Anne.
Her youngest child, Christina Georgina, became famous as a poet and is probably best known as the author of the poem Goblin Market.
Frances died in 1886 and was buried in the family plot at Highgate Cemetery.
