While the 21st century can boast fads of glittered wallpaper, micro-pigs and rubber ‘live strong’ charity bracelets, it’s not a patch on the world of late Victorian London. In the latter part of the 19th century, many wealthy individuals, including the Pre-Raphaelite artists, developed an obsession with keeping exotic Australian animals as pets.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, regarded as the leader of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, achieved a new level of celebrity when his house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea (London) became a personal zoo. Rossetti’s menagerie would grow to include raccoons, parrots, owls, kangaroos, deer, armadillos and a zebu bull that promptly attacked its owner after arrival. His neighbours grew so annoyed with Rossetti’s unsuitable pets that his landlord added a clause for all future tenants stating ‘No peacocks are allowed.’ In one instance, his armadillo escaped the household and found sanctuary at his neighbours house, who, in terror, believed the devil himself had come to visit.

His exotic brood grew throughout the 1870s, but many of his animals perishing from the inclement British climate. Most would stay in his back garden, but others were rather more beloved and allowed inside the artist’s home. However, most treasured of all were his wombats.

Rossetti first came face-to-face with a wombat following the opening of Regent’s Park Zoo in 1847. Londoners flocked to see the exciting variety of animals from across the empire, and among the visitors was the young artist himself. Of all the exotic and unusual animals, one caught Rossetti’s eye and would become an enduring obsession; the wombat.

Rossetti would ultimately buy two wombats for a grand total of £8, naming one of the creatures ‘Top’ in a strange nod to William Morris’ nickname ‘Topsy’, a man whose wife Rossetti had become enamoured with. William was often held up as a figure of fun by Rossetti and his friends, owing to his nervous nature and ferocious temper that would often leave him so exhausted that he could experience seizures and blackouts. Rossetti would even depict William Morris and his wife Jane in a small drawing – Jane shown as a beautiful, saintly woman, Morris, as a wombat on a lead.

During a trip to Scotland, Rossetti sent a letter to Jane Morris, excitedly telling her of his furry purchase with a short verse:

Oh how the family affections combat
Within this heart, and each hour
flings a bomb at
My burning soul! Neither from owl nor
from bat
Can peace be gained until I clasp
my wombat.

Questionable name choices aside, he went on to pen many drawings, paintings and poems to wombats, delighting in the clumsy nature and satisfying name of the animal. Following Top’s eagerly-awaited arrival in the Rossetti household, he wrote to his brother exclaiming that the creature was ‘a joy, a triumph, a delight, a madness!’[1] Top was the showpiece of Rossetti’s home menagerie, with visitors greeted with Top’s presence in the household, causing all manner of mischief. On at least one occasion, the wombat was used as a butler style novelty, brought to the table alongside brandy and cigars. There were many more instances of Top causing havoc in the household. On one occasion a woman was sitting for a portrait when she realised that Top had helped himself to her hat. In response, Rossetti did not apologise, but exclaimed ‘Oh, poor wombat! It is so indigestible!’

Unfortunately for Top – and many other animals owned by Rossetti, he did not settle well into Britain’s climate, or Rossetti’s ownership, dying not long after his arrival in Chelsea in 1869. However he would live on in the Rossetti household…in a way, at least. Following the wombat’s demise, Top was stuffed and mounted, welcoming visitors in the entrance way to his household for some time. He would also commemorate the event with a now-infamous little pen and ink portrait of his grief.

I never reared a young Wombat
To glad me with his pin-hole eye
But when he was most sweet and fat
And tail-less, he was sure to die!

For centuries after his death, the wombat has become the unofficial symbol of Rossetti, with miniature plush versions often found alongside exhibitions of his work. For such a wild and tempestuous artist, a cuddly marsupial seems rather juxtaposed with his romantic paintings of dramatic, pouting women, but one can never control their legacy.

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Further Reading:

https://www.frieze.com/article/picture-piece-rossetti-and-womba

[1] https://www.laurasbeau.co.uk/the-wombat-is-a-joy-a-triumph-a-delight-a-madness-dante-gabriel-rossetti/