Frederic George Stephens - The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda) c.1850

This is a scene from The Clerk’s Tale, one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth-century Canterbury Tales. The marquis of Saluzzo has fallen in love with a poor but beautiful peasant girl, Griselda, and is proposing marriage to her. He goes on to subject her to a series of appalling trials to test her love. But Griselda is patient and eventually wins his devotion.The background of this picture was painted from life in the kitchen of the rural lodgings that Stephens shared with his friends Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, at Knole in Kent.

Frederic George Stephens - Morte d'Arthur c.1850-55

Oil on wood

Frederic George Stephens photo by Hollyer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_George_Stephens

Frederic George Stephens

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_George_Stephens

The painting (now in the Tate Gallery) was painted by William Holman Hunt on wood in 1847. They were best friends for years but had fallen out by the 1870's (a common fate of Hunt's friends). Their long correspondance however tells us a lot of what we know about the PRB. It was painted the year before the PRB was officially formed when Stephen's was a pupil of Hunt. It is still rather crudely painted, but the relaxed pose and the staring eyes show his abilities.

Frederic George Stephens

[portrait by Millais]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_George_Stephens

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[Morte d'Arthur circa 1850-55]
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=524&page=1


(1828-1907)
Frederick George Stephens was a student at the Royal Academy with Holman Hunt, Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and Thomas Woolner. He was asked to join the original three members of the PRB (Hunt, Rossetti, and Millais) in 1848. It is generally agreed that Stephens' talent for painting was sparse, however, and he eventually gave up art for teaching. In 1860, Stephens wrote a biography, published anonymously, of William Holman Hunt. In 1861, he became the art critic for The Athenaeum, a job he held for forty years.

Frederic George Stephens - Mother and Child

1854-6

oil on canvas

Tate Gallery

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http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=524&page=1