Lot Essay
This drawing is a study for the figure of the pall-bearing attendant on the right in the second versions of Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice. The design, conceived for a watercolour of 1856 (Tate Gallery; Virginia Surtees, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A Catalogue Raisonné, 1971, no. 81, pl. 95), was repeated twice on a larger scale in oils. The first of these versions (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Surtees 81. R.1, pl. 97) is Rossetti's largest painting. Planned as early as 1863 but not taken up in earnest until 1868, and finally dated 1871, it was bought by William Graham who, however, found it too large to hang. He therefore commissioned the second, smaller, oil version (Dundee City Art Gallery; Surtees 81.R.2), which occupied Rossetti on and off until 1880
The drawing, which is not in Mrs Surtees' catalogue, appears to belong to the group of eight studies for the Liverpool picture which Rossetti agreed to sell to his agent Charles Augustus Howell in 1870 for (140. Another drawing to the group, a study for the figure of Love dated 1874, is in a private collection in Canada, and Douglas Schoenherr, in cataloguing this for the current exhibition of work by William Morris and his circle in Canada, has described the transaction as follows: 'Since these preparatory drawings were unfinished, in some cases only drapery studies without heads or hands, additional work was necessary on them before they could be considered saleable. A further (30 was apparently promised by Howell when the artist delivered the completed sheets. Between 1873 and 1875 a series of letters between artist and agent documents the repercussions of this transaction in excrutiating detail, Howell making accusations that went on for months and years' (The Earthly Paradise, exh. Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Winnipeg, 1993-4, cat. p. 87, under no. A:37). Our drawing may in fact be one of '2 figures at head of bed' that Rossetti mentions when listing the eight drawings in a letter to Howell of 31 December 1874 (Cline, loc. cit.).
Like others in the series, the drawing was evidently started as a drapery study, the emphasis being placed on the sleeves and the fall of the skirt. It must date from fairly early in the creative process since it varies considerably from the figure in the painting, where entirely different solutions are adopted for these details and the figure stands with her weight on the other foot so that her left leg, not her right, is bent. No doubt the head, hands and pall were added to the drawing in the manner described above in order to complete it and make it marketable. This would account for why these parts are treated in a rather perfunctory fashion. Rossetti has made no attempt to give the figure the features of Marie Spartali Stillman, who modelled for the figure in the painting. A fine study of her head, made in this connection in 1870, is in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard (Surtees 81.R.1.J; pl. 100).
The date on the drawing, 1873, must be that when it was completed for Howell. The fact that Howell's studies for the Liverpool picture (and possibly others) bear dates later than its completion (1871) has led some scholars to conclude that they were made in preparation for the Dundee version, which was not finished until 1880. But as Schoenherr observes, 'they would have been no help to the artist in making his second painting, since they had all been handed over to Howell by 1875 and dispersed'. In fact our drawing, with its considerable variations from the Liverpool picture, is particularly significant in this context, since all the evidence suggests that in painting the Dundee version Rossetti was anxious to copy the original as closely as possible, employing his assistant Henry Treffry Dunn to carry out the preliminary work.
The drawing seems to be the source for a pastiche of a Rossetti drawing in the Kunsthalle at Hamburg. Though not copied from it in detail, this follows the conception closely and is similarly 'signed' and dated 1873
The drawing, which is not in Mrs Surtees' catalogue, appears to belong to the group of eight studies for the Liverpool picture which Rossetti agreed to sell to his agent Charles Augustus Howell in 1870 for (140. Another drawing to the group, a study for the figure of Love dated 1874, is in a private collection in Canada, and Douglas Schoenherr, in cataloguing this for the current exhibition of work by William Morris and his circle in Canada, has described the transaction as follows: 'Since these preparatory drawings were unfinished, in some cases only drapery studies without heads or hands, additional work was necessary on them before they could be considered saleable. A further (30 was apparently promised by Howell when the artist delivered the completed sheets. Between 1873 and 1875 a series of letters between artist and agent documents the repercussions of this transaction in excrutiating detail, Howell making accusations that went on for months and years' (The Earthly Paradise, exh. Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Winnipeg, 1993-4, cat. p. 87, under no. A:37). Our drawing may in fact be one of '2 figures at head of bed' that Rossetti mentions when listing the eight drawings in a letter to Howell of 31 December 1874 (Cline, loc. cit.).
Like others in the series, the drawing was evidently started as a drapery study, the emphasis being placed on the sleeves and the fall of the skirt. It must date from fairly early in the creative process since it varies considerably from the figure in the painting, where entirely different solutions are adopted for these details and the figure stands with her weight on the other foot so that her left leg, not her right, is bent. No doubt the head, hands and pall were added to the drawing in the manner described above in order to complete it and make it marketable. This would account for why these parts are treated in a rather perfunctory fashion. Rossetti has made no attempt to give the figure the features of Marie Spartali Stillman, who modelled for the figure in the painting. A fine study of her head, made in this connection in 1870, is in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard (Surtees 81.R.1.J; pl. 100).
The date on the drawing, 1873, must be that when it was completed for Howell. The fact that Howell's studies for the Liverpool picture (and possibly others) bear dates later than its completion (1871) has led some scholars to conclude that they were made in preparation for the Dundee version, which was not finished until 1880. But as Schoenherr observes, 'they would have been no help to the artist in making his second painting, since they had all been handed over to Howell by 1875 and dispersed'. In fact our drawing, with its considerable variations from the Liverpool picture, is particularly significant in this context, since all the evidence suggests that in painting the Dundee version Rossetti was anxious to copy the original as closely as possible, employing his assistant Henry Treffry Dunn to carry out the preliminary work.
The drawing seems to be the source for a pastiche of a Rossetti drawing in the Kunsthalle at Hamburg. Though not copied from it in detail, this follows the conception closely and is similarly 'signed' and dated 1873