Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

A Fight for a Woman

细节

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
A Fight for a Woman
signed and dated 'G.C.D.R./Sep.855' (lower right) and inscribed 'Skelt fecit' (lower left) and with inscription by William Michael Rossetti 'By Dante G. Rossetti/The 2 Sketches of a Fight for a Woman/may have been done about the same/time, 1855. In writing "Skelt fecit" DGR/referred to the "Stage-characters" dear/to his childhood. The centre subject (Gipsies [sic].) may be rather earlier than 1855' (on a label attached to the backboard)
pen and black ink and brown wash, on paper
7 1/8 x 8 7/8 in. (18.1 x 22.5 cm.)

来源

William Michael Rossetti and by descent in his family to the present owner. Previously framed by William Michael Rossetti with lots 4 and 5.

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Antonia Vincent

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拍品专文

The subject of two men fighting over a woman - one that had many resonances in his own life - fascinated Rossetti from boyhood, and he returned to it in pictorial terms over many years. Virginia Surtees' catalogue lists a 'juvenile sketch' made as early as 1840, when the artist was only twelve (no. 180B), and a more mature sketch in brush and indian ink which she dates to c. 1853 (no. 180A). The latter drawing is in the Birmingham Art Gallery.

Lots 3 and 4, one dated 1855, the other done, according to William Michael Rossetti, 'about the same time', are further variations on the theme. However, it was not until 1865 that the composition reached definitive form in a watercolour now in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Surtees, no. 180 and pl. 262).