Beata Beatrix, the original 1864-70

"This is a faithful version of one of Rossetti's most celebrated and moving works by his studio assistant Treffrey Dunne. At an uncertain date he had begun and abandoned a picture of Dante's lover Beatrice asleep. Lizzie Siddal was the model. In 1864, about two years after his wife's death, he returned to the canvas reworking it into a scene from Dante's Vita Nuova. It shows Beatrice sitting on her balcony overlooking Florence as she falls into a trance and is transported from earth to heaven. In the background are the figures of Love and Dante and a view of Florence. A red dove drops a poppy into Beatrice's hands symoblizing her death. The picture is at once Rossetti's last likeness of Lizzie Siddal ('one might almost say she sat in spirit' as his brother remarked) and a memorial to her" (Pre-Raphaelites and Olympians, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2001, p. 16)

It is possible that this version was executed by Rossetti's studio assistant Treffrey Dunne