Lot Essay
The drawing has an interesting provenance, having belonged to two collectors who maintained an interest in Pre-Raphaelite painting during its long years of eclipse. The first was Kerrison Preston, a Bournemouth solicitor who was a close friend of Graham Robertson, publishing Robertson's letters to him in 1953. Preston reproduced the drawing in his book Blake and Rossetti (1944), which he wrote with Robertson's encouragement and in which he advanced the theory that the two artists shared a soul, Rossetti having been born nine months after Blake's death. The second owner was Evelyn Waugh, who collected Victorian paintings assiduously and was related by marriage to William Holman Hunt. Two other works from his collection have appeared in these Rooms recently: Hunt's Oriana (25 October 1991, lot 52) and W.A. Atkinson's The Upset Flower-Cart (12 June 1992, lot 118).
The drawing dates from the early 1860s, but the identity of the sitter is disputed. Preston assumed that she was Fanny Cornforth, who was almost certainly Rossetti's mistress even before his marriage to Lizzie Siddal in May 1860, and who became his housekeeper when, following Lizzie's death in February 1862, he settled at 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Mrs Surtees is inclined to agree with this view, observing that the model is 'possibly Fanny Cornforth' (loc. cit.). However, the compilers of the catalogue of the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Baden-Baden in 1973-4 suggested that the drawing was a late study of Lizzie herself; and more recently the name of Agnes Manetti has been proposed. According to William Michael Rossetti, 'Fatty Aggie', as she was known, was a Scotswoman 'of no rigid virtue who had a most energetic as well as beautiful profile, not without some analogy to that of the great Napoleon'. It is recorded in G.P. Boyce's diary that she was sitting to Rossetti in October 1862, and she modelled for several of his pictures at this period. One of his studies of her, showing her 'Napoleonic' profile very clearly, was sold in these Rooms on 25 March 1994, lot 342.
This seems to be Rossetti's only study of a model caressing a pet, although his fondness for animals is well known.
The drawing dates from the early 1860s, but the identity of the sitter is disputed. Preston assumed that she was Fanny Cornforth, who was almost certainly Rossetti's mistress even before his marriage to Lizzie Siddal in May 1860, and who became his housekeeper when, following Lizzie's death in February 1862, he settled at 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Mrs Surtees is inclined to agree with this view, observing that the model is 'possibly Fanny Cornforth' (loc. cit.). However, the compilers of the catalogue of the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Baden-Baden in 1973-4 suggested that the drawing was a late study of Lizzie herself; and more recently the name of Agnes Manetti has been proposed. According to William Michael Rossetti, 'Fatty Aggie', as she was known, was a Scotswoman 'of no rigid virtue who had a most energetic as well as beautiful profile, not without some analogy to that of the great Napoleon'. It is recorded in G.P. Boyce's diary that she was sitting to Rossetti in October 1862, and she modelled for several of his pictures at this period. One of his studies of her, showing her 'Napoleonic' profile very clearly, was sold in these Rooms on 25 March 1994, lot 342.
This seems to be Rossetti's only study of a model caressing a pet, although his fondness for animals is well known.