Delphi Complete Paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Illustrated) E-Book

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

• Herausgeber: Delphi Classics
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Masters of Art
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 519

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti created a visionary body of paintings that defined a new art of sensuality and medieval revivalism. Delphi’s Masters of Art Series presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing digital readers to explore the works of the world’s greatest artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents the complete paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in beautiful detail, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* The complete paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti — over 120 paintings, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order* Includes reproductions of rare works* Features a special ‘Highlights’ section, with concise introductions to the masterpieces, giving valuable contextual information* Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Rossetti’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books* Hundreds of images in stunning colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders* Special chronological and alphabetical contents tables for the complete paintings* Easily locate the paintings you want to view* Wide selection of the artist’s pen and chalk drawings also included* Features two bonus biographies - discover Rossetti's artistic and personal life* Ruskin’s seminal lecture on Rossetti’s art* Scholarly ordering of plates into chronological order and literary genresCONTENTS:The HighlightsTHE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGINECCE ANCILLA DOMINI: THE ANNUNCIATIONTHE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF BEATRICETHE SEED OF DAVIDBOCCA BACIATAHELEN OF TROYVENUS VERTICORDIATHE BELOVEDBEATA BEATRIXMONNA VANNAREVERIELA PIA DE’ TOLOMEIDANTE’S DREAM AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH OF BEATRICETHE BOWER MEADOWLA GHIRLANDATAPROSERPINEASTARTE SYRIACAA VISION OF FIAMMETTAThe PaintingsTHE COMPLETE PAINTINGSALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGSSelected DrawingsLIST OF DRAWINGSThe Biographies and CriticismRECOLLECTIONS OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI by T. Hall CaineBRIEF BIOGRAPHY: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI by Richard GarnettREALISTIC SCHOOLS OF PAINTING: D. G. ROSSETTI AND W. HOLMAN HUNT by John Ruskin

Leseprobe

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

(1828-1882)

Contents

The Highlights

THE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGIN

ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI: THE ANNUNCIATION

THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF BEATRICE

THE SEED OF DAVID

BOCCA BACIATA

HELEN OF TROY

VENUS VERTICORDIA

THE BELOVED

BEATA BEATRIX

MONNA VANNA

REVERIE

LA PIA DE’ TOLOMEI

DANTE’S DREAM AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH OF BEATRICE

THE BOWER MEADOW

LA GHIRLANDATA

PROSERPINE

ASTARTE SYRIACA

A VISION OF FIAMMETTA

The Paintings

THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS

Selected Drawings

LIST OF DRAWINGS

The Biographies and Criticism

RECOLLECTIONS OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI by T. Hall Caine

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI by Richard Garnett

REALISTIC SCHOOLS OF PAINTING: D. G. ROSSETTI AND W. HOLMAN HUNT by John Ruskin

© Delphi Classics 2014

Version 1

Masters of Art Series

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

By Delphi Classics, 2014

Interested in Rossetti’s art? Then you’ll love these eBooks…

Rossetti’s Complete Poetical Works, as well as the Complete Poetry of his sister Christina Rossetti and his close friend Algernon Charles Swinburne

For the first time in publishing history, Delphi Classics is proud to present the complete works of these important poets.

www.delphiclassics.com

The Highlights

38 Charlotte Street (now 105 Hallam Street), London — Rossetti’s birthplace

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting of his sister Christina with their mother, Frances Polidori, who was the sister of Lord Byron’s friend and physician, John William Polidori

The poet’s father, Gabriele Rossetti, a poet and political exile from Vasto, Abruzzo

Self-portrait of Rossetti, aged 19

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, aged 22, by William Holman Hunt

THE HIGHLIGHTS

In this section, a sample of some of Rossetti’s most celebrated works are provided, with concise introductions, special ‘detail’ reproductions and additional biographical images.

THE GIRLHOOD OF MARY VIRGIN

Housed in the Tate Gallery, London, this early oil painting was completed in 1849 and depicts the Virgin Mary as a young girl, working on embroidery with her mother, St. Anne. Her father, St. Joachim can be seen in the background pruning a vine. The painting provides many symbolic details, with the palm branch on the floor and thorny briar rose on the wall alluding to Christ’s Passion, the lilies to the Virgin’s purity and the books piled on the left foreground represent the virtues of hope, faith and charity. The dove on the trellis symbolises the Holy Spirit.

The canvas was Rossetti’s first completed oil painting and the first picture to be exhibited with the initials ‘PRB’, relating to the ‘Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’, inscribed in the lower left-hand corner. In a letter dated 14th November 1848 to Charles Lyell, Rossetti described the work as belonging “to the religious class which has always appeared to me the most adapted and the most worthy to interest the members of a Christian community. The subject is the education of the Blessed Virgin, one which has been treated at various times by Murillo and other painters, but, as I cannot but think, in a very inadequate manner, since they have invariably represented her as reading from a book under the superintendence of her Mother, St. Anne, an occupation obviously incompatible with these times, and which could only pass muster if treated in a purely symbolical manner. In order, therefore, to attempt something more probable and at the same time less commonplace, I have represented the future Mother of Our Lord as occupied in embroidering a lily, always under the direction of St. Anne.”

Lake Galilee is portrayed in the background as a landscape in the style of fifteenth century Italian art. Rossetti also inscribed the names of his subjects within their halos, perhaps demonstrating the influence of the work of Benozzo Gozzoli — an artist before the time of Raphael.

Rossetti had formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood the previous year in 1848 with his two friends and fellow artists William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. The group’s intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists that had succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. The members of the ‘PRB’ believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence their adoption of the name “Pre-Raphaelite”. In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, whom they ridiculed as “Sir Sloshua”. The members of the brotherhood yearned instead for a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English artist whose influences were driven by his religious background. Through the PRB initials, as found on The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, the brotherhood had announced in coded form the arrival of a new movement in British art.

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‘Madonna and Child between Saints Andrew and Prosper’ (detail) by Benozzo Gozzoli — demonstrating how the Renaissance artist’s use of inscribing names in halos may have influenced Rossetti’s art.

The original founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: William Holman Hunt; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; John Everett Millais

7 Gower Street, London — the location where Rossetti and his friends established the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI: THE ANNUNCIATION

Completed in 1850 and now on permanent display in Tate Britain, this oil painting is based on a traditional theme in western art, known as the Annunciation, concerning when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be giving birth to the son of God. The canvas is given a Latin title: Ecce Ancilla Domini (‘Behold the handmaiden of the Lord’), which is a quotation from the Vulgate text of the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, when Mary accepts the message brought to her by Gabriel.

Rossetti deliberately used a limited colour range for the painting, favouring a predominance of white, symbolic of virginity, complemented by the vibrant blue that is traditionally associated with Mary, and red for Christ’s blood. Lilies were also a customary symbol for the Virgin in Italian Renaissance art, but they are also considered as funereal flowers, indicative of Christ’s death.

The artist’s sister, Christina Rossetti, later to become a famous poet in her own right, posed for Mary in this painting, as she did in the previous canvas.  In both paintings, Rossetti opted to change the model’s hair colour, choosing an auburn tint instead, in order to build upon the red palette. Miss Love, a professional model used by several members of the PRB in their work, provided the hair seen in the image. The artist’s brother William posed for Gabriel.

The canvas was first exhibited in April 1850 at the Old Portland Gallery on Regent Street and received mixed reviews, causing controversy with some critics. The most obvious break from tradition was the placing of Mary in bed, wearing a long nightgown suggestive of a newly-wed bride, as she is awoken by the angel. Typically in Annunciation paintings Mary is depicted in a more ‘saintly’ manner, praying or in divine meditation, but Rossetti’s portrayal of the mother of Christ is much more realistic and rustic. Another contentious issue was Gabriel’s lack of wings and his suggested nakedness, glimpsed through the side of his robe.

Francis McCracken, a well known Pre-Raphaelite patron, bought the canvas in 1853 for £50 and the Tate Gallery purchased the work in 1886.

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Portrait of Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

‘The Annunciation’ by Leonard da Vinci. A traditional handling of the theme, demonstrating how radical Rossetti’s approach was.

THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF BEATRICE

This 1853 watercolour concerns a scene depicted in Dante Aligiheri’s LaVita nuova, when the poet recalls how he drew an angel on the anniversary of the death of his beloved Beatrice. The Florentine goes on to explain how he had not realised that whilst he was lost in his grief, some friends had entered the room, whom he should have greeted courteously. Arising, the poet said for a greeting, “Another was with me.” Throughout his literary and artistic career, Rossetti was fascinated by the works of his literary namesake. The poetry treatise tells the story of Dante’s infatuation and holy love for Beatrice Portinari, a young Florentine noble woman. Rossetti had begun translating the work into English in 1845 and published the entire book in The Early Italian Poets. Many of Rossetti’s finest early achievements in poetry and painting are based on works by the early Renaissance poet.

In the painting the face of the young woman belongs to Lizzie Siddal, an early model of Rossetti’s, whom he later married in 1860. Siddal went on to become a talented artist herself, winning the respect and patronage of Ruskin. Through the window to the right, we can glimpse the River Arno and a complementing blue palette, whilst to the left, through the doorway, we can see a medieval garden with vibrant green hues, all helping to complement the dark tones of the interior scene. Unlike similar watercolours by Rossetti during the 1850s, The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice is well-organised in terms of spatial treatment, offering a less ‘cluttered’ work, which is well-balanced and rich in visual detail. It is an important canvas, as when it was purchased by Francis MacCracken, she showed it to the art critic John Ruskin, who at once requested to meet the artist. Ruskin would become a leading supporter of the Pre-Raphaelites and his early commissions gave Rossetti much needed financial support.

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Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862) was a model, poet and artist. Siddal featured prominently in Rossetti’s early paintings and they were married in 1860.

John Ruskin (1819–1900),the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, was instrumental in launching the artistic and poetical career of the young Rossetti.

THE SEED OF DAVID

Begun in 1858 and completed six years later in 1864, this triptych panel is the only public commission undertaken by Rossetti, which was secured for him by John Seddon, the brother of Thomas Seddon, a fellow member of the PRB, who died in Cairo in 1856. John Seddon was an architect working on Llandaff Cathedral and commissioned Rossetti £400 to produce the altarpiece.

The central panel of the triptych represents an Adoration of the Magi scene, flanked by two representations of David: the left showing him as a boy, sling in hand; the right portraying him as crowned king. As the artist explained in a letter to Charles Eliot Norton, written in 1858, when his conception of the triptych was taking form, he intended to paint “the Nativity; for the side pieces to which I have David as Shepherd and David as King — the ancestor of Christ, embodying in his own person the shepherd and king who are seen worshipping in the Nativity.” Rossetti symbolically links David and Christ through the dual nature of shepherd and king, depicting David as a shepherd on the left, whilst portraying Christ in the centre being worshiped by both shepherds and kings.

The altarpiece illustrates the artist’s admiration for the works of Sandro Botticelli, whose Mystic Nativity contains similar angel musicians. A year after completing the triptych, Rossetti purchased a Botticelli portrait from a Christies auction for £20, which he kept until a year before his death, selling it then for £315.

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‘Mystic Nativity’ by Sandro Botticelli, 1500 — a likely source of inspiration for Rossetti’s ‘Seed of David’ altarpiece

The triptych in situ

BOCCA BACIATA

This 1859 canvas heralds Rossetti’s breakaway from the PRB and his preference for portraits of beautiful women, being no longer concerned with moral or cultural subjects. The painting features a quotation from the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, which is inscribed on the back of the small painting and reads, “The mouth that has been kissed loses not its freshness; still it renews itself even as does the moon.” The model for the portrait was Fanny Cornforth, who came from Steyning in East Sussex, and the portrait was commissioned by George Price Boyd, who was notorious for his fondness for beautiful young models. Bocca Baciata may have been influenced by Millais’ portrait of his sister-in-law Sophie Gray, completed two years earlier.

Rossetti explained in a letter to William Bell Scott that he was attempting to paint flesh more fully, and to “avoid what I know to be a besetting fault of mine - & indeed rather common to PR painting - that of stipple in the flesh...Even among the old good painters, their portraits and simpler pictures are almost always their masterpieces for colour and execution; and I fancy if one kept this in view, one might have a better chance of learning to paint at last.”

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‘Portrait of a Girl’ by John Everett Millais, 1857

HELEN OF TROY

Completed in 1863 and housed in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, this portrait of the mythical Spartan queen was once again posed for by Fanny Cornforth, a principal inspiration for many of Rossetti’s sensuous figures. The subject of the canvas was most likely inspired by Rossetti’s friend William Morris, who was working on a series of embroideries titled ‘Good Women’, loosely based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetical work of the same name. Morris’ embroideries feature full-length figures, whereas Rossetti’s painting is a shoulder length portrait of Helen, “the destroyer of ships, the destroyer of men, the destroyer of cities”, as the artist inscribed from a Greek play on the back of the canvas. In the background of the image Troy can be seen burning as indistinct rectangular shapes, lit up by flames, whilst the beauty of Helen and her sumptuous robe, of a rich and similar hue to her own hair, are the pivotal features of the composition.

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William Morris, self-portrait, 1856. Morris and Rossetti met whilst the latter was teaching at Oxford. Morris asked the artist to become a contributor to the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, which Morris founded in 1856 to promote his ideas about art and poetry.

VENUS VERTICORDIA

This 1868 canvas depicts the goddess of love, standing surrounded by a garden of roses. The title, ‘Venus Changer of the Heart’ alludes to the sensuous theme of seduction and love. Venus handles Cupid’s arrow, as well as the apple, which according to myth was awarded to her by Paris, when judged as the fairest of all the goddesses. Venus is complemented with honeysuckle, red roses, butterflies and a golden halo. The canvas was purchased by John Mitchell of Bradford in 1868 and, although it is only one of two semi-nude paintings by Rossetti, the work offended Ruskin, who complained that it was ‘coarse’.

The model was Alexa Wilding, who for posed for more of Rossetti’s finished works than any other of his more well known models. Comparatively little is known about Wilding, which is perhaps partly due to the lack of romantic or sexual connection that separates Rossetti’s relationships with his other muses.  Her working-class family originated in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and she was the daughter of a piano-maker. Wilding was first seen by Rossetti one evening in the Strand in 1865 and he was immediately impressed by her beauty. She agreed to sit for him the following day, but failed to arrive as planned. It is possible that she was put off by the morally dubious reputation of models at that time. Weeks went by and Rossetti had given up the idea of the painting he had in mind, so important did he consider the look of this specific model, when he spotted her again in the street. He jumped from the hackney cab he was in and persuaded her to be led straight back to his studio. He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might also employ her. After Rossetti’s death in 1882, Wilding, though not particularly financially well off, was said to have travelled regularly to place a wreath on the artist’s grave in Birchington-on-Sea.

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Drawing of Alexa Wilding, 1865

THE BELOVED

Housed in Tate Britain, this 1865 canvas illustrates the Bible’s Song of Solomon, with two passages inscribed on the picture’s gilded frame: ‘My beloved is mine and I am his’ (2:16) and ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine’ (1:2). In the image, the bride moves back her veil, whilst attended by four virginal bridesmaids and an African page. The skin tones and hair colouring of all the other subjects contrast strikingly with the red hair and pale skin of the bride. It is likely that this colour contrast, carefully painted as a frame to the bride’s features, was influenced by Édouard Manet’s controversial painting Olympia, first exhibited in 1865, which features a reclining nude woman with lucent white skin and a black servant. Rossetti made a visit to Manet while working on The Beloved and the canvases were both completed in the same year.

Interestingly, Rossetti arranged the bride in a head-dress which is distinctly recognisable as Peruvian and in a Japanese gown. Again, this abundance of exotic fabric frames the face of the bride, dominant in the centre of the canvas, with its western-European features. Rossetti ostensibly finished this oil painting in 1866, but continued to make changes to the canvas throughout his life.

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‘Olympia’ by Édouard Manet, 1865

BEATA BEATRIX

Completed in 1870 and housed in Tate Britain, this famous oil painting depicts Beatrice Portinari from Dante Aligiheri’s poem La Vita nuova at the moment of her death. The painting’s title in English translates as ‘Blessed Beatrice’. Rossetti modelled Beatrice after his deceased wife and frequent model, Elizabeth Siddal, who had died eight years before in 1862. The painting was created from the numerous drawings that Rossetti had made of Siddal during their time together. Several of Siddal’s friends found the painting to bear little resemblance to the drawings of her — the facial features were harder and the neck was reportedly out of proportion.

In the background, far off in the distance, we can glimpse the deserted streets of Florence and the Ponte Vecchio and Duomo, whilst Dante stands on the right, facing the Angel of Love on the left. Beatrice appears to be locked in a trance, next to a sundial, displaying the time of nine o’clock, the hour at which she died on 9 June 1290. The symbolism of a red dove, a messenger of love, refers to Rossetti’s love for Siddal, with the white poppy dropping from the bird’s beak representing laudanum and the means of his wife’s death.

In an 1873 letter to his friend William Morris, Rossetti said he intended the painting “not as a representation of the incident of the death of Beatrice, but as an ideal of the subject, symbolised by a trance or sudden spiritual transfiguration.”

Rossetti had been commissioned by William Graham to make a replica of Beata Beatrix, dated 1872, which is almost the same size as the original, though it features a predella, depicting Dante Alighieri and Beatrice meeting in paradise with a frame designed by Rossetti. It was given by bequest and is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. The popularity if the image was so great, that Rossetti went on to paint five more copies of Beata Beatrix.

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Rossetti’s drawing of Elizabeth Siddal reading

MONNA VANNA

This sumptuous 1866 portrait features Alexa Wilding as the model once again, depicted in the style of sixteenth century Venetian portraits. She appears as a bored society beauty, adorned with golden brocade, as she holds a feathered fan and absently plays with her coral necklace. The portrait is famous for the subject’s vacant expression

The theme of the canvas is based on the unfinished opera Monna Vanna by Sergei Rachmaninoff, after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck. It concerns Guido, the military commander of Pisa, who learns from his father that the enemy will cease the ongoing conflict if Monna Vanna, the wife of Guido, goes to the enemy’s camp, dressed only in her mantle. Monna Vanna agrees to this demand.

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REVERIE

This chalk on paper work was completed in 1868 and is now housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It is the first of many works concerning Rossetti’s final and possibly greatest source of inspiration: his muse Jane Morris, who was the wife of the artist’s close friend William Morris. In 1865 the husband and wife had moved from Bexleyheath to London and so were able to spend more time with Rossetti. In July of that year, Jane sat for a series of photographs by John Parsons, one of which was used by Rossetti as the basis for this chalk drawing. Jane Morris was to have a lasting effect on the dominant image of women in Pre-Raphaelite art in later years. Unlike Lizzie Siddal, the golden haired, pale faced persona of the early years of the PRB, Jane was dark, striking and unconventional in her choice of clothing. She was a member of the Rational Dress movement, refusing to be subjected to wearing corsets and crinolines. From now on, the majority of Rossetti’s female subjects were to be tall, graceful, dark and brooding females, largely based on the image of Jane Morris.

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Jane Morris, photographed by John Parson — this image was clearly the inspiration for Rossetti’s chalk drawing.

LA PIA DE’ TOLOMEI

Completed by 1880, though started twelve years earlier, the canvas concerns a popular Victorian poem by Felicia Hemans, which in turn is based upon Canto V of Dante’s Purgatorio. The medieval poet describes his meeting with La Pia, wife of Nello della Pietra, who had been imprisoned in a fortress in the Maremma, off the Tuscan coast, and explains how she was eventually killed by her husband’s neglect. The choice of subject may well have had personal influence with the artist and his model, Jane Morris, as that time they were passionately in love and involved in a clandestine secret affair. The similarity between La Pia’s marriage and Jane’s to a man she was not in love with would have had a significant meaning to the artist and sitter.

In the composition, La Pia sits on the fortress’ ramparts, surrounded by ivy, symbolic of clinging memory, whilst she touches her wedding ring in deep contemplation of the unhappiness that her marriage has brought her. The sundial in the foreground represents the passing of time. Beside the sundial, old love letters from La Pia’s husband rest beneath a breviary, stating her forced celibacy and the disloyalty of her spouse. The canvas was only completed after Rossetti’s assistant, Charles Fairfax Murray, provided the artist with images of the swampy terrain around Maremma, as depicted by Rossetti in the upper left segment of the painting.

Jane Morris appears disproportionately large in many of the artist’s images of the model. In Pia de’ Tolomei her neck appears strangely elongated and the whiteness of her skin shines out, making it difficult for the viewer to pay attention to any other aspect of the painting. Jane’s hair colour is misrepresented in the canvas, as her natural colour was dark brown, though Rossetti chose to paint it with an auburn tinge, much closer to Lizzie Siddal’s hair colour.

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The Maremma landscape, bordering the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian Seas

DANTE’S DREAM AT THE TIME OF THE DEATH OF BEATRICE

This 1871 painting, currently housed in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, is Rossetti’s largest canvas and once again concerns the artist’s lifelong literary interest, the works of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. It was inspired by La Vita nuova, recountinghow Dante had dreamt that he was led to the deathbed of his beloved Beatrice Portinari, the object of his unfulfilled love. In the image, Dante is depicted in black, looking towards the dying Beatrice, who is lying on a bier, whilst two female figures in green hold a canopy over her. An angel in red holds Dante’s hand and leans forward to kiss Beatrice, for whom the model was Jane Morris. Rossetti creates a visionary world with complex symbols, where the green clothes of Beatrice’s attendants signify hope, the spring flowers in the foreground represent purity and the red doves connote love.

The Walker Art Gallery bought the painting directly from the artist in 1881 for £1,575 — a great deal of money at that time. The sale was diplomatically handled by Hall Caine, the famous Manx author. The gallery’s funding corporation had a strict policy that it could only purchase paintings that were officially exhibited in the annual Academy exhibitions and as Rossetti never exhibited his works publicly, this presented a challenging obstacle in the sale of the canvas.  However, Caine managed to convince the artist to allow the painting to be displayed for one day, on the promise that it would be immediately purchased by the gallery.

In 1897 the canvas was sent to Berlin to be photographed and was noted to be “in a dirty condition”. Again in 1904 the painting was noted to be in “a bad condition” and it was considered that its condition had been worsened by its journey to and from Berlin. The painting was sent in 1908 to the National Gallery in London to be relined, which involved a new canvas being glued to the original, before being returned to Liverpool. During the Second World War, the painting was removed from its stretcher, rolled and stored in the basement of the gallery. In 1941 the painting was moved, together with several other large paintings from the gallery, to Ellesmere College in Shropshire. It was noted at this time that it had sustained some damage. Conservation work was carried out on the painting in 1960 and in 1985. When it was re-examined in 2003, restoration was finally complete, being judged to be in good condition, with no evidence of any recurrence of the former problems.

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Hall Caine caricatured as “The Manxman” in Vanity Fair, July 1896

THE BOWER MEADOW

The Bower Meadow, an 1872 canvas, depicts two women in the foreground playing musical instruments. The subject on the right is Alexa Wilding, who strums a guitar, whilst the woman on the left was modelled by Marie Spartali, a fellow Pre-Raphaelite painter, who wears a coiled clip in her hair, as seen in many of Rossetti’s later images of beautiful women. Behind the front two musicians, two other women gracefully dancing in the bower meadow, their hands and arms somewhat elongated to stress their movement. In the distance across the meadow a red angel can be seen, but is of minimal prominence, compared to the lucent skin and elegant depiction of the four beautiful women.

The background of the image was actually painted from outdoor studies recorded twenty-two years previously on Rossetti’s visit to Knole Park, Sevenoaks, with William Holman Hunt. Usually, Rossetti disliked working en plain air when it came to landscape work, opting instead for photographs or studies made by assistants. The Bower Meadow is one of the rare occasions where landscape takes a more prominent place in a canvas and is not subjected to a small corner or inconsequent window view in the composition.

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Marie Spartali, later Stillman (1844-1927) was a Pre-Raphaelite painter of Greek descent, widely regarded as the greatest female artist of that movement. During a sixty-year career, she produced over one hundred works, contributing regularly to exhibitions in Britain and the United States.

The deer park at Knole Park, Kent

LA GHIRLANDATA

During the latter stages of his career, Rossetti had established his reputation as a master painter of hands, as demonstrated by the many competent depictions of female hands that dominate his oeuvre. The 1873 canvas La Ghirlandata, which translates as ‘The Garlanded’, is no exception. The harp was a popular instrument in Victorian times, as many felt it allowed females to show off their hands and wrists to great advantage. In artistic terms, hands were considered to be effective tools with which to convey human emotions. In the canvas Rossetti depicts Alexa Wilding’s long and graceful fingers, as she strums the harp’s strings. The deft handling of the instrument reinforces our interpretation of the subject as being a sublime and gentle being. The hands of the two angels above are also portrayed with varying poses, having been modelled on drawings of Jane Morris’ youngest daughter May. Reportedly, the artist and May Morris were very good friends and on one occasion he had expressed a sincere interest in adopting the girl.

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PROSERPINE

Housed in Tate Britain and completed in 1874, this famous oil painting depicts the Roman goddess Proserpine, who, according to legend, lives in the underworld during winter. Rossetti worked for seven years on eight separate canvases, before he finished the canvas. His model for Proserpine was once again Jane Morris, presented as a beautiful woman, with slender hands, flawlessly pale skin and thick raven hair. Rossetti finished the painting at a time when his mental health was suffering and his love for Jane Morris was reported to be at its most obsessive.

According to the Greek myth Proserpine was abducted by Hades and taken to the Underworld as his captive. Her mother Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and the Earth, angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing a malediction on Sicily. Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, creating a desert at every step. Concerned for the fate of man, Zeus ordered his brother Hades to free Proserpine. Hades obeyed, but before letting her go he made his captive eat six pomegranate seeds, as those who have eaten the food of the dead cannot return to the world of the living. Therefore she had to live six months of each year with him, staying the rest with her mother. This story was undoubtedly told in ancient times in order to illustrate the changing of the seasons: when Ceres welcomes her daughter back in the spring the earth blossoms, and when Proserpina must be returned to her husband, it withers.

In Rossetti’s canvas, Proserpine is represented in a dark corridor of Hades’ palace, holding the fatal fruit in her hand. A gleam of light, signifying life, from the upper world passes her on the left and she glances furtively towards it, lost in thought. An incense burner stands beside her as an attribute of a goddess, while the ivy branch in the background is a symbol of clinging memory. The accompanying sonnet which Rossetti wrote for the painting is a poem of longing, bearing a strong personal reference to his yearning to extricate Jane Morris from her unhappy marriage with William Morris:

Afar away the light that brings cold cheer

Unto this wall, – one instant and no more

Admitted at my distant palace-door

Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear

Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.

Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey

That chills me: and afar how far away,

The nights that shall become the days that were.

Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing

Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign:

And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,

(Whose sounds mine inner sense in fain to bring,

Continually together murmuring) —

‘Woe me for thee, unhappy Proserpine’. — D. G. Rossetti

The symbolism in Rossetti’s painting poignantly indicates Proserpine’s plight, as well as Jane Morris’s plight, torn between her husband, the father of her two adored daughters and her lover. The pomegranate particularly draws the viewer’s eye, as the vibrant colour of its flesh matches the colour of Proserpine’s full lips. The shadow portrayed on the wall signifies the passing of her time in Hades and the patch of sunlight signifies her limited time spent in the upper world. Her dress, like spilling water, suggests the turning of the tides, and the incense burner denotes the subject as an immortal.

The painting is signed and dated on a scroll at lower left: ‘DANTE GABRIELE ROSSETTI RITRASSE NEL CAPODANNO DEL 1874’ (Italian) (Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted this at the beginning of 1874). The frame, designed by Rossetti, features roundels and resembles a section of a pomegranate, reflecting the sliced pomegranate held in Proserpine’s hand.

The sheer popularity of the image is demonstrated by the number of versions completed before the artist’s death. At least eight separate versions exist of the painting, the last being completed in 1882, the year of Rossetti’s death. Early versions of Proserpine were promised to Charles Augustus Howell. The most famous version, housed in Tate Britain, was commissioned by Frederick Richards Leyland, who had commissioned eighteen paintings from Rossetti, not counting unfulfilled commissions.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

Rossetti’s eighth and final version of ‘Proserpine’, now housed in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1882

Kelmscott Manor, located in the Cotswold village of Kelmscott, Oxfordshire. Fearing an open scandal due to his wife’s affair, William Morris decided to take out a joint tenancy with Rossetti on this manor in 1871. Morris then went to Iceland, leaving his wife and Rossetti to furnish the house and spend the summer there.

ASTARTE SYRIACA

This 1877 canvas, widely regarded as Rossetti’s last masterpiece, depicts Astarte, an ancient Middle Eastern fertility goddess, who was an earlier and more malign version of Venus, the Classical goddess of love. Above her head, the artist depicts her emblem, the eight-pointed star, behind which the sun and moon meet as symbols of her power over nature.  According to legend, Astarte’s girdle made her an irresistible force and Rossetti conveys this by presenting the picture space as though Astarte (once again modelled by Jane Morris) may stride out of the painting, half-threatening, half-alluring. She stands in a traditional ‘pudica pose’, where an unclothed female uses a hand to conceal her nakedness, as seen in Botticelli’s famous The Birth of Venus (1486), though Rossetti’s depiction of his female subject is more controversial. Astarte is a powerful and dominating presence, with a large and muscular body frame, evidently inspired by the females of Michelangelo’s art. Interestingly, the posture of her right arm and hand is distinctly similar to the Renaissance artist’s famous sculpture of a dying slave.

Rossetti’s friend Theodore Watts-Dunton was responsible for the development of Astarte Syriaca out of a chalk drawing of Jane Morris that Rossetti made in 1875. Watts-Dunton told his friend that the drawing “expressed exactly the idea of one of the Oriental Venuses.” According to Watts, Rossetti made two efforts at the painting as he felt the British public might not be able to appreciate his “experiments in flesh-painting” in which “the corporeal part of man seemed more and more to be the symbol of the spiritual”

The painting was commissioned by Clarence Fry, a partner established in a photography business, in August 1875 for £2,100, after he had seen the artist’s composition studies during that summer. Rossetti worked at the picture in the autumn and winter of 1875-1876, but abandoned an early attempt around March, when he began the canvas a second time, as the first attempt had not satisfied him. The canvas was all but finished in December 1876, when he was much concerned about the frame; before being finally completed.

Here is the poem composed by the artist for the painting:

ASTARTE SYRIACA

MYSTERY: lo! betwixt the sun and moon Astarte of the Syrians: Venus Queen Ere Aphrodite was. In silver sheen Her twofold girdle clasps the infinite boon Of bliss whereof the heaven and earth commune: And from her neck’s inclining flower-stem lean Love-freighted lips and absolute eyes that wean The pulse of hearts to the spheres’ dominant tune.

Torch-bearing, her sweet ministers compel All thrones of light beyond the sky and sea The witnesses of Beauty’s face to be: That face, of Love’s all-penetrative spell Amulet, talisman, and oracle, — Betwixt the sun and moon a mystery.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Detail

‘The Birth of Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli, 1486 — displaying the typical ‘pudica pose’

‘The Dying Slave’ by Michelangelo, 1516 — the pose of right hand is very similar to the pose used by Rossetti for Astarte’s right hand

Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914)

‘Rossetti and Watts-Dunton at 16 Cheyne Walk’ by Henry Treffry Dunn

A VISION OF FIAMMETTA

A Vision of Fiammetta is one of Rossetti’s last completed paintings, forming a half of one of Rossetti’s double works, accompanying his poetry collection Ballads and Sonnets (1881). His fellow artist Maria Spartali Stillman modelled for the painting and the subject of the canvas is Boccaccio’s muse Fiammetta. The frame is inscribed with three texts: the sonnet by Boccaccio entitled “On his Last Sight of Fiammetta,” which inspired the painting; Rossetti’s translation of the verse and his own poem mirroring the painting:

Behold Fiammetta, shown in Vision here.

Gloom-girt ‘mid Spring-flushed apple-growth she stands;

And as she sways the branches with her hands,

Along her arm the sundered bloom falls sheer,

In separate petals shed, each like a tear;

While from the quivering bough the bird expands

His wings. And lo! thy spirit understands

Life shaken and shower’d and flown, and Death drawn near.

All stirs with change. Her garments beat the air:

The angel circling round her aureole

Shimmers in flight against the tree’s grey bole:

While she, with reassuring eyes most fair,

A presage and a promise stands; as ‘twere

On Death’s dark storm the rainbow of the Soul.

Toward the end of his life, Rossetti sank into a morbid state, darkened by his drug addiction to chloral hydrate and increasing mental instability. He spent his last years as a recluse at Cheyne Walk. On Easter Sunday, 1882, he died at the country house of a friend, where he had gone in a vain attempt to recover his health, which had been destroyed by chloral as his wife’s had been destroyed by laudanum. He died of Brights Disease, resulting in an infection of the kidneys from which he had been suffering for some time. He is buried at Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England.

The painting was originally in the possession of William Alfred Turner, a businessman and director for a time of the Edison Electric Lighting Company, who owned Joli cœur (1867), Water Willow, a chalk study for La Bella Mano, Mnemosyne (1876) and the oil version of Proserpine (1877). Through a sequence of other owners, A Vision ofFiammetta has now found its way into the collection of the composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Detail

Detail

Detail

The Paintings

In 1845 Rossetti enrolled at the Antique School of the Royal Academy in London, where he studied for three years.

THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS

The oil and watercolour paintings are presented in this section of the eBook in chronological order.

CONTENTS

The Childhood of Mary Virgin

The Annunciation

The Laboratory

The Two Mothers

Borgia

Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante

Carlisle Wall (The Lovers)

The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice

Elizabeth Siddal

Found

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise

Elizabeth Siddal

Elizabeth Siddal

Mary Nazarene

Bruna Brunelleschi

Arthur’s Tomb

Beatrice, Meeting Dante at a Wedding Feast, Denies him her Salutation

Dante’s Vision of Rachel and Leah

Paolo And Francesca Da Rimini

The Annunciation

The Passover in the Holy Family Gathering Bitter Herbs

Dante’s Dream

Mary Magdalene leaving the house of feasting

Fra Pace

Sir Lancelot’s Vision of the Sanc Grael

A Christmas Carol

Mary Magdalene

Saint Catherine

The Blue Closet

The Tune of the Seven Towers

The Wedding of Saint George and Princess Sabra

Before the Battle

Golden Water

The Seed of David

The Annunciation

Sir Galahad at the ruined chapel

The Salutation of Beatrice

Bocca Baciata

Writing on the Sand

Dantis Amore

Regina Cordium

Lucrezia Borgia

Fair Rosamund

The Fight between Sir Tristram and Sir Marhaus

Music

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Fanny Cornforth

Girl at a Lattice

Portrait of Maria Leathart

Saint George and the Princess Sabra

The Sermon on the Mount

Helen of Troy

Joan of Arc Kisses the Sword of Liberation

My Lady Greensleeves

How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanct Grael; but Sir Percival’s Sister Died by the Way

How They Met Themselves

Gardening (Spring)

Morning music

Roman de la Rose

The First Madness of Ophelia

The Gate of Memory

Woman Combing Her Hair

Golden Tresses

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

The Blue Bower

The Twig

Monna Vanna

Regina Cordium: Alice Wilding

The Beloved

A Christmas Carol

Joli Coeur (French for)

King Rene’s Honeymoon

Monna Rosa

The Loving Cup

The Loving Cup

Tristram and Isolde Drinking the Love Potion

Fanny Cornforth

Jane Morris (The Blue Silk Dress)

Lady Lilith

Reverie

The Return of Tibullus To Delia

Venus Verticordia

Pandora

Penelope

Sibylla Palmifera

Mariana

Beata Beatrix

The Lady of Pity (La Donna della Finestra)

Dante’s Dream

Pandora

Water Willow

The Bower Meadow

Veronica Veronese

Roman Widow

Proserpine

Sancta Lilias

The Boat of Love

The Damsel of the Sanct Grael or Holy Grail

The Garland

La Bella Mano

A Sea Spell

Proserpine

Mary Magdalene

Astarte Syriaca

The Blessed Damozel

A Vision of Fiammetta

Aurelia

Pandora

The Lady of Pity

The Women’s Window (La Donna Della Finestra)

Beatrice

Belcolore

Blanzifiore (Snowdrops)

The Day Dream

The Pia of Tolomei

The Blessed Damozel

Kissed Mouth

Mnemosyne

Joan of Arc

The Childhood of Mary Virgin

Date:1849

Oil on canvas

65.4 x 83.2 cm

Tate Gallery, London

The Annunciation

Date c.1849

Oil on canvas

41.9 x 72.7 cm

Tate Britain, London, England

The Laboratory

Date 1849

Watercolour with scratching over pen and ink, on paper

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

The Two Mothers

Date:1851

Oil on canvas

Sudley Art Gallery

Borgia

1851/1854/1858-59

232 x 248 mm

Watercolour on paper

Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle

Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante

Date 1852

36.8 x 47 cm

Private Collection

Carlisle Wall (The Lovers)

Date 1853

Tate Britain, London, England

The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice

Date 1853

Watercolour

61 x 41.9 cm

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

Elizabeth Siddal

Date:1854

Watercolour on paper

Found

Date 1854

Oil on canvas

80 x 91.4 cm

Delaware Art Museum

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Date 1854

Watercolour

Delaware Art Museum

The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise

Date:1854

Watercolour on paper

Fitzwilliam Museum

Elizabeth Siddal

1854

Watercolour

Private collection

Elizabeth Siddal

Date: c. 1854

Watercolour

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

Mary Nazarene

c. 1855

343 x 197 mm

Watercolour on paper

Tate, London

Bruna Brunelleschi

1855

33.9 x 31.1 cm

Watercolour on paper

Fitzwilliam Museum, London

Arthur’s Tomb

Date 1855

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas

Beatrice, Meeting Dante at a Wedding Feast, Denies him her Salutation

Date 1855

42 x 34 cm

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Dante’s Vision of Rachel and Leah

Date 1855

Tate Gallery, London

Paolo And Francesca Da Rimini

Date 1855

Watercolour

44 x 25 cm

Tate Gallery, London

The Annunciation

Date c.1855

36.83 x 24.77 cm

Private Collection

The Passover in the Holy Family Gathering Bitter Herbs

Date:1856

43.18 x 40.64 cm

Tate Gallery, London

Dante’s Dream

1856

48.7 x 66.2 cm

Watercolour on paper

Tate, London

Mary Magdalene leaving the house of feasting

1857

356 x 206 mm

Watercolour on paper

Tate, London

Fra Pace

1856

Watercolour

Private collection

Sir Lancelot’s Vision of the Sanc Grael

1857

71 x 107 cm

Watercolour and gouache over black chalk on paper

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

A Christmas Carol

Date 1857

Gouache, watercolour on paper

Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas, USA

Mary Magdalene

Date 1857

34.29 x 19.69 cm

Tate Britain, London, England

Saint Catherine

Date 1857

Oil on canvas

Tate Britain, London, England

The Blue Closet

Date 1857

Watercolour on paper

Tate Britain, London, England

The Tune of the Seven Towers

Date 1857

Watercolour

36.5 x 31.4 cm

Tate Gallery, London

The Wedding of Saint George and Princess Sabra

Date 1857

Watercolour

34 x 34 cm

Tate Gallery, London

Before the Battle

Date 1858

Watercolour

28 x 42.5 cm

Golden Water

Date 1858

43.82 x 36.83 cm

Fitzwilliam Museum

The Seed of David

Date 1858

Oil

276.8 x 228.6 cm

Llandaff Cathedral

Left

Centre

Right

The Annunciation

Date 1859

Fitzwilliam Museum

Sir Galahad at the ruined chapel

1859

291 x 345 mm

Watercolour and bodycolour on paper

Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

The Salutation of Beatrice

Date 1859

Oil

160 x 74.9 cm

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

Bocca Baciata

Date 1859

32.2 x 27 cm

Oil on panel

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gift of James Lawrence

Writing on the Sand

Date 1859

Oil on canvas

Fitzwilliam Museum

Dantis Amore

Date:1860

Oil on canvas

81.3 x 74.9 cm

Tate Gallery, London

Regina Cordium

Date 1860

Oil

Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Lucrezia Borgia

1860-61

43.8 x 25.8 cm

Pencil and watercolour on paper

Tate Gallery, London

Fair Rosamund

Date 1861

Oil

52 x 42 cm

National Museum of Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru), Wales, UK

The Fight between Sir Tristram and Sir Marhaus

1862-63

68 x 61 cm

stained glass panel

Bradford Art Gallery

Music

c. 1863

63.5 x 54 cm

Stained and painted glass

Victoria and Albert Museum

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Date 1862

15.24 x 17.78 cm

Fitzwilliam Museum

Fanny Cornforth

Date 1862

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

Girl at a Lattice

Date 1862

Oil on canvas

26 x 29 cm

Fitzwilliam Museum

Portrait of Maria Leathart

Date 1862

Oil

33 x 30 cm

Private Collection

Saint George and the Princess Sabra

Date 1862

Watercolour

Tate Gallery, London

The Sermon on the Mount

Date 1862

Helen of Troy

Date 1863

Oil

31 x 27 cm

Hamburger Kunsthalle

Joan of Arc Kisses the Sword of Liberation

Date 1863

My Lady Greensleeves

Date 1863

Oil on canvas

33.02 x 27.31 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanct Grael; but Sir Percival’s Sister Died by the Way

Date 1864

Watercolour

41.9 x 29.2 cm

Tate Gallery, London

How They Met Themselves

Date 1864

Indian ink, pen

Fitzwilliam Museum

Gardening (Spring)

1864

225 x 200 mm

Watercolour on paper

Private collection

Morning music

Date 1864

Watercolour

Fitzwilliam Museum

Roman de la Rose

Date 1864

Tate Britain, London, England

The First Madness of Ophelia

Date 1864

39.37 x 29.21 cm

Oldham Art Gallery

The Gate of Memory

Date 1864

Chalk on paper

Makins Collection

Woman Combing Her Hair

Date 1864

36.2 x 33.02 cm

Private Collection

Golden Tresses

Date 1865

Pencil, watercolour

37.5 x 44.5 cm

Private Collection

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Date:1865

24 x 33 cm

Fitzwilliam Museum

The Blue Bower

Date 1865

Oil on canvas

90 x 69 cm

Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, UK

The Twig

Date 1865

Oil on canvas

39.4 x 47.6 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Monna Vanna

Date 1866

Oil on canvas

116.8 x 9.2 cm

Tate Britain, London, England

Regina Cordium: Alice Wilding

Date 1866

Oil on canvas

49.5 x 59.7 cm

The Beloved

Date:1866

Oil on canvas

76.2 x 82.6 cm

Tate Gallery, London

A Christmas Carol

Date 1867

Oil on canvas

Joli Coeur (French for)

Date 1867

Oil

38.1 x 30.2 cm

City of Manchester Art Galleries, Manchester, UK

King Rene’s Honeymoon

Date 1867

53 x 34 cm

Private Collection

Monna Rosa

Date 1867

57 x 40.7 cm

Private Collection

The Loving Cup

Date 1867

Gouache on paper

63 x 36 cm

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

The Loving Cup

Date: 1867

Oil on panel

William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow

Tristram and Isolde Drinking the Love Potion

Date 1867

Cecil Higgins Art Gallery

Fanny Cornforth

Date 1868

Oil on canvas

34 x 50 cm

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

Jane Morris (The Blue Silk Dress)

Date 1868

Oil on canvas

Lady Lilith

Date 1868

Gouache, watercolour on paper

81.3 x 95.3 cm

Delaware Art Museum

Reverie

Date 1868

Chalk on paper

84 x 71 cm

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

The Return of Tibullus To Delia

Date 1868

57 x 47 cm

Private Collection

Venus Verticordia

Date:1868

Oil on canvas

69.9 x 98 cm

Russell Cotes Art Gallery and Museum

Pandora

Date 1869

Chalk on paper

100.5 x 72.5 cm

Faringdon Collection

Penelope

Date 1869

Chalk

89 x 67 cm

Private Collection

Sibylla Palmifera

Date: 1870

Oil on canvas

82.6 x 94 cm

Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, United Kingdom

Mariana

Date 1870

Oil on canvas

110.5 x 90.2 cm

Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

Beata Beatrix

Date 1870

Oil on canvas

86 x 66 cm

National Galleries of Scotland

The Lady of Pity (La Donna della Finestra)

Date 1870

Pastel

Bradford Art Galleries and Museums, West Yorkshire, UK

Dante’s Dream

Oil on canvas

317.5 x 210.8 cm

Date: 1871

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK

Pandora

1871

128.3 x 76.2 cm

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Water Willow

Date 1871

Oil on canvas

Delaware Art Museum

The Bower Meadow

Date 1872

Oil on canvas

85 x 67 cm

City of Manchester Art Galleries, Manchester, UK

Veronica Veronese

Date 1872

Oil on canvas

109 x 89 cm

Delaware Art Museum

Roman Widow

Date: 1874

Oil on canvas

103.7 x 91.2cm

Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico

Proserpine

Date 1874

Oil on canvas

61 x 125.1 cm

Tate Britain, London, England

Sancta Lilias

Date 1874

Oil on canvas

45.7 x 48.3 cm

Tate Gallery, London

The Boat of Love

Date 1874

Oil on canvas

124.5 x 94 cm

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

The Damsel of the Sanct Grael or Holy Grail

Date 1874

Oil on canvas

The Garland

Date:1874

Oil on canvas

87.6 x 115.6 cm

Guildhall Art Gallery

La Bella Mano

1875

162.5 x 116.8 cm

Oil on canvas

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

A Sea Spell

Date 1877

Oil on canvas

88.9 x 106.7 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Proserpine

1873-77

Oil

Private collection

Mary Magdalene

Date 1877

Oil on canvas

Delaware Art Museum

Astarte Syriaca

Date 1878

Oil on canvas

106.7 x 183 cm

City of Manchester Art Galleries, Manchester, UK

The Blessed Damozel

Date:1878

Oil on canvas

84 x 174 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

A Vision of Fiammetta

Date 1878

Oil on canvas

89 x 146 cm

Private Collection: Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber

Aurelia

Date 1879

Oil

38.1 x 43.2 cm

Tate Gallery, London

Pandora

Date 1879

Watercolour

Faringdon Collection Trust

The Lady of Pity

Date 1879

Oil on canvas

85.1 x 72.4 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The Women’s Window (La Donna Della Finestra)

Date 1879

Oil on canvas

74.3 x 101 cm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Beatrice

Date 1880

Private Collection

Belcolore

Date 1880

Oil on panel

Blanzifiore (Snowdrops)

Date 1880

Oil on canvas

41.5 x 34 cm

Private Collection

The Day Dream

Date 1880

Oil on canvas

92.7 x 157.5 cm

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Pia of Tolomei

Date:1880

Oil on canvas

105.4 x 120.6 cm

Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas, USA

The Blessed Damozel

Date: 1875-81

111 x 82.7 cm, 36.5 x 82.8 cm (predella)

Oil on canvas

National Museums Liverpool

Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight

Kissed Mouth

Date 1881

Oil on canvas

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Mnemosyne

Date:1881

Oil on canvas

126.4 cm × 61 cm

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware

Joan of Arc

Date 1882

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PAINTINGS

CONTENTS

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

A Sea Spell

A Vision of Fiammetta

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Arthur’s Tomb

Astarte Syriaca

Aurelia

Beata Beatrix

Beatrice

Beatrice, Meeting Dante at a Wedding Feast, Denies him her Salutation

Before the Battle

Belcolore

Blanzifiore (Snowdrops)

Bocca Baciata

Borgia

Bruna Brunelleschi

Carlisle Wall (The Lovers)

Dante’s Dream

Dante’s Dream

Dante’s Vision of Rachel and Leah

Dantis Amore

Elizabeth Siddal

Elizabeth Siddal

Elizabeth Siddal

Fair Rosamund

Fanny Cornforth

Fanny Cornforth

Found

Fra Pace

Gardening (Spring)

Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante

Girl at a Lattice

Golden Tresses

Golden Water

Helen of Troy

How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanct Grael; but Sir Percival’s Sister Died by the Way

How They Met Themselves

Jane Morris (The Blue Silk Dress)

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc Kisses the Sword of Liberation

Joli Coeur (French for)

King Rene’s Honeymoon

Kissed Mouth

La Bella Mano

Lady Lilith

Lucrezia Borgia

Mariana

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene leaving the house of feasting

Mary Nazarene

Mnemosyne

Monna Rosa

Monna Vanna

Morning music

Music

My Lady Greensleeves

Pandora

Pandora

Pandora

Paolo And Francesca Da Rimini

Penelope

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Portrait of Maria Leathart

Proserpine

Proserpine

Regina Cordium

Regina Cordium: Alice Wilding

Reverie

Roman de la Rose

Roman Widow

Saint Catherine

Saint George and the Princess Sabra

Sancta Lilias

Sibylla Palmifera

Sir Galahad at the ruined chapel

Sir Lancelot’s Vision of the Sanc Grael

The Annunciation

The Annunciation

The Annunciation

The Beloved

The Blessed Damozel

The Blessed Damozel

The Blue Bower

The Blue Closet

The Boat of Love

The Bower Meadow

The Childhood of Mary Virgin

The Damsel of the Sanct Grael or Holy Grail

The Day Dream

The Fight between Sir Tristram and Sir Marhaus

The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice

The First Madness of Ophelia

The Garland

The Gate of Memory

The Laboratory

The Lady of Pity

The Lady of Pity (La Donna della Finestra)

The Loving Cup

The Loving Cup

The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise

The Passover in the Holy Family Gathering Bitter Herbs

The Pia of Tolomei

The Return of Tibullus To Delia

The Salutation of Beatrice

The Seed of David

The Sermon on the Mount

The Tune of the Seven Towers

The Twig

The Two Mothers

The Wedding of Saint George and Princess Sabra

The Women’s Window (La Donna Della Finestra)

Tristram and Isolde Drinking the Love Potion

Venus Verticordia

Veronica Veronese

Water Willow

Woman Combing Her Hair

Writing on the Sand

Selected Drawings

Cheyne Walk, South-West London, where Rossetti lived with the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne. Rossetti kept a menagerie in the back garden, much to the annoyance of his neighbours. It included a bull, a white peacock, a kangaroo, a raccoon and a wombat that reportedly had a liking for ladies’ hats. Consequently local house leases still forbid the keeping of such creatures.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

CONTENTS

Self-Portrait

Faust. Margaret in the Church

The Beautiful Lady Without goods

Ecce Ancilla Domini study

A Parable of Love

Elizabeth Siddal Seated at an Easel

Portrait of Ford Madox Brown

Mary Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee

Portrait of William Rossetti (orange)

The Return of Tibullus to Delia study for Delia

Elizabeth Siddal

Elizabeth Siddal

Paolo and Francesca

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Self-Portrait

Jane Morris

King Arthur and the Weeping Queens

King Arthur and the Weeping Queens

Study of Guinevere for Sir Lancelot in the Queen’s Chamber

The Lady of Shalott (Moxon Tennyson)

Hamlet and Ophelia

Jane Burden, aged 18

Dantis Amor

Elizabeth Siddal Seated in a Chair

Jane Morris

Mrs. Burne Jones

Self-Portrait

Aggie

Algernon Charles Swinburne

My Lady Greensleeves

Fanny Cornforth

The Beloved study (The Bride study)

The Roseleaf

Miss Robinson (Mrs. Fernandez)

Venus Verticordia Study

Ellen Smith

Study of a Girl

Image of a sketch and poem showing subject and author

Image of women and an exotic pet

Portrait of Fanny Cornforth

Portrait of Mrs. William J. Stillman

The M s at Ems

Dante’s Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice study

Jane Morris

Portrait of Aflaia Coronio

Self-Portrait

Silence

The Women of the Flame

Woman with a Fan

Image of artist and his exotic pet

May Morris

The Bower Meadow

The Bower Meadow Study (Study of Dancing Girls)

Ligeia Siren

The Blessed Damozel Study

The Garland

Portrait of Mrs Georgin A Fernandez

Study for the Death of Lady Macbeth

The Blessed Damozel study

The Rainbow

Aggie

Alexa Wilding

Alexa Wilding

Annie Miller

Annie Miller

Annie Miller

Annie Miller

Aspecta Medusa

Portrait of the artist’s sister Christina and mother Frances

The Day Dream

The Daydream

The Women’s Window (Jane Morris)

Desdemona

Cassandra

Desdemona’s Death Song

Elizabeth Siddall in a Chair

Elizabeth Siddall Plaiting her Hair

Golden head.jpg

Head of a Youth

Portrait of Jane Morris

Sir Launcelot in the Queen’s Chamber

Sketch For Dante At Verona, With A Preliminary Study For The Principal Figure

Study For A Vision Of Fiammetta

Self-Portrait

Date 1847

Pen on paper

National Portrait Gallery

Faust. Margaret in the Church

Date 1848

Pen on paper

Tate Gallery, London

The Beautiful Lady Without goods

Date 1848

Pen

Ecce Ancilla Domini study

Date c.1849

Pen

Tate Britain, London, England

A Parable of Love

Date:1850

Pen

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

Elizabeth Siddal Seated at an Easel

Date 1852

Portrait of Ford Madox Brown

Date 1852

Pen on paper

National Portrait Gallery

Mary Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee

Date 1853

Indian ink, pen on paper

54 x 47.7 cm

Fitzwilliam Museum

Portrait of William Rossetti (orange)

Date 1853

Pen

National Portrait Gallery

The Return of Tibullus to Delia study for Delia

Date c.1853

Pen

32.2 x 41 cm

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

Elizabeth Siddal

Date 1854

Fitzwilliam Museum

Elizabeth Siddal

Date:1855

Pen

Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA

Paolo and Francesca

Date 1855

British Museum, London

Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Date 1855

Pen

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK

Self-Portrait

Date c.1855

Fitzwilliam Museum

Jane Morris

Date 1857

Pencil on paper

Kelmscott Manor

King Arthur and the Weeping Queens

Date:1857

Pen

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

King Arthur and the Weeping Queens

Date:1857

Study of Guinevere for Sir Lancelot in the Queen’s Chamber

Date 1857

The Lady of Shalott (Moxon Tennyson)

Date 1857

Hamlet and Ophelia

Date 1858

Pen

Jane Burden, aged 18

Date 1858

Pen

49.2 x 37.6 cm

National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Dantis Amor

Date 1860

Elizabeth Siddal Seated in a Chair

Date:1860

Pen

Private Collection

Jane Morris

Date 1860

Pen

Mrs. Burne Jones

Date 1860

Chalk

Private Collection

Self-Portrait

Date 1861

Pen

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

Aggie

Date 1862

Pen on paper

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Date 1862

Pen on paper