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Lot Essay
In July 1865, the London photographer John R. Parsons photographed Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris, at the request of her lover, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The session took place in the garden of Rossetti's home in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea and the poses were arranged by Rossetti himself.
The results of this session were to prove amongst the most haunting and mysterious of Pre-Raphaelite photographs, due in part to the contrast between the photographs and their related paintings. In The Pre-Raphaelite Camera Michael Bartram writes "Due to whatever blend of artistry on the part of Parsons and Rossetti, they capture Jane Morris more successfully than any other visual image or description which has come down to us. In Rossetti's numerous portrayals she becomes an obvious fantasy-figure. The written record about her is contradictory, but here in the photographs, there is a sharp revelation. This results form a contrast between a preoccupied sitter and the blithe accidents of environment which monochrome photography is well-fitted to articulate. The lack of constriction - the pervasive airiness, the freedom of unloosed hair and flowing gown - is something of which the subject's highlighted features fail to partake. The garden is dappled, the makeshift marquee or studio is light-filled: they might have encouraged her personality to take wing. Instead they suggest a curious entrapment.
In his drawings and paintings Rossetti either banished or mythologized the disturbing quality in these images."
The results of this session were to prove amongst the most haunting and mysterious of Pre-Raphaelite photographs, due in part to the contrast between the photographs and their related paintings. In The Pre-Raphaelite Camera Michael Bartram writes "Due to whatever blend of artistry on the part of Parsons and Rossetti, they capture Jane Morris more successfully than any other visual image or description which has come down to us. In Rossetti's numerous portrayals she becomes an obvious fantasy-figure. The written record about her is contradictory, but here in the photographs, there is a sharp revelation. This results form a contrast between a preoccupied sitter and the blithe accidents of environment which monochrome photography is well-fitted to articulate. The lack of constriction - the pervasive airiness, the freedom of unloosed hair and flowing gown - is something of which the subject's highlighted features fail to partake. The garden is dappled, the makeshift marquee or studio is light-filled: they might have encouraged her personality to take wing. Instead they suggest a curious entrapment.
In his drawings and paintings Rossetti either banished or mythologized the disturbing quality in these images."