Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Study for the figure of Love for Dante's dream at the time of the death of Beatrice




signed with the artist's monogram and dated l.r.: 1875
black and red chalk on pale blue paper
57 by 39cm., 22 by 15in.


Purchased from the artist by Charles Augustus Howell in 1875 and probably sold by him to the Hon. Percy Wyndham by 1899


This drawing probably originated as a drapery study for the central figure in Rossetti's most ambitious painting Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) completed by Rossetti in 1871. In the years following the completion of the painting Rossetti added heads and hands to various drapery studies for the paintings as part of an obligation to Charles Augustus Howell. It is likely that Howell sold the drawing to Percy Wyndham, who owned at least three more drawings by Rossetti and a version of his painting Beata Beatrix. A photograph shows this drawing hanging in Madeline Wyndham's boudoir at their house country house in Wiltshire, Clouds.


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