Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887 - October 2, 1968): Artist, Dadaist, Surrealist, icon, observer, and pictured here in 1921 as Rrose Selavy, one of his other creative personas. As R. Mutt he exhibited a urinal as a fountain; he also turned other various everyday objects into artistic arrangements; within his lifetime the nude descended the staircase, the sad young man rode a train, and many games of chess were played -- until the ultimate checkmate.
Poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) was quite the character -- charismatic and full of life in his younger days, founder of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artistic movement, racing after beautiful red or golden-haired women he saw on the street to ask them to pose for his latest work, and lover of exotic animals like peacocks and wombats. He even managed to procure his own pet wombats, and apparently they had the run of the house. Rossetti was also brother of poet Christina Rossetti, whom he painted as the Virgin Mary, and a good friend of British Arts & Crafts genius William Morris for quite some time.
