Friday, October 26, 2012

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Girl singing to a Lute



GIRL SINGING TO A LUTE
signed with initials and dated l.l.: DGR 1853
watercolour with bodycolour and gum arabic
22 by 10cm., 9 by 4in.

Bought from the artist by John Ruskin, from c.1855 and given by him to Constance Hilliard (later Churchill) after 1865;


This delightful early watercolour was made by Rossetti while staying with William Bell Scott in Newcastle in June 1853, possibly by lamplight. Rossetti mentioned the picture in a letter to his brother Michael; 'I have made a little watercolour of a woman in yellow, which I shall be able to sell, I have no doubt.' The watercolour was bought some years later by John Ruskin who in 1865 had a frame made for the picture and later gave it to the niece of his friend Pauline Trevelyan, Constance Hilliard who lived for a time at Ruskin's house at Denmark Hill.



No comments: