Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist - William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919)



Befitting to a literary man, this portrait shows William Rossetti in his study, at 3 St. Edmund's Terrace, Primrose Hill, London, which was his home from 1890 until his death. In the top left corner is a version of ‘La Donna della Finestra’ (1879), by his brother, Dante Gabriel, whose tie pin he is shown wearing. The unidentified creature in a cage in the bottom left corner, possibly an owl, is perhaps a reference to William's interest in animals: his journal of the 1890s records regular visits to the Zoological Gardens near his home.

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