Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Frank Dicksee - The Sensitive Plant





signed with initials 'F.D.' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour and with scratching out on paper
7½ x 4 7/8 in.

The present watercolour depicts Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem of 1820.

A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew,
And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light.
And closed them beneath the kisses of Night.

The dramatic yet subtle lighting are typical of Dicksee's style. The warm glow of light in the present watercolour is particularly characteristic. This awareness of the possibilities of light may well have been encouraged by Dicksee's early experience of working in stained glass with Henry Holiday.

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=9&intObjectID=5318366&sid=0545c7f3-3455-4ae9-8651-dfe2783d1493

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