‘Constant diarrhoea’ and other excuses: Rossetti’s five years of apologies for unfinished art revealed

A section of Sibylla Palmifera by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, which was finally finished in 1870. Photograph: National Museums Liverpool

As excuses for getting out of tricky work meetings go, having “constant diarrhoea” usually works a treat – and so it proved for the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti in a letter written 155 years ago.

Now, this little-known letter, in which Rossetti tries to put off a difficult meeting with an exasperated patron by claiming to have diarrhoea “and other troublesome symptoms”, is to go on display for the first time on Tuesday.