rossetti sat for several of dante gabriel rossetti's most famous paintings. in 1848, she was the model for the virgin mary in his first completed oil painting, "the girlhood of mary virgin", and the first work to be inscribed with the initials "prb", later revealed to signify the pre-raphaelite brotherhood. the following year she modelled for his depiction of the annunciation, "ecce ancilla domini". a line from her poem "who shall deliver me?" inspired the famous painting by fernand khnopff called "i lock my door upon myself". in 1849 she became seriously ill again, suffering from depression and sometime around 1857 had a major religious crisis.