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Hesterna Rosa

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1853

Physical Description

Medium: pen and ink

Dimensions: 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.

Signature: Dante Rossetti

Date on Image: 1853

Note: Inscribed below the drawing: “Composed—1850—drawn, and given to his P. R. Brother Frederic G. Stephens—1853”. The signature and date are not in DGR's hand and appear to have been added at different times. The plate reproduced in Wood's Drawings of D. G. Rossetti has only the signature. The same picture in Surtees has both the signature and date inscribed at lower left.

Production Description

Production Date: 1853

Exhibition History: 4 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, Pre–Raphaelite Exhibition, 1857 (no.60); R.A., 1883 (no.334); State Galleries of Australia, 1962 (no.66)

Provenance

Current Location: Tate Gallery

Catalog Number: 4626

Archival History: F.G. Stephens; Lt.–Colonel H. F. Stephens Bequest

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This drawing is the earliest known version of the work.

Bibliography

Angeli, DGR con 107 illustrazioni , 58.
Grieve, “Furniture in Rossetti,” 17-18.
Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 40-41.
Powell, “Object, Symbol, and Metaphor,” 16-29.
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 1, 21-22 (no. 57).
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 49.
Wood, Drawings of DGR , 41.

Hesterna Rosa

Copyright: ©Tate, London 2004

Included Text

Note: Below the image are eight lines, in two columns, of Elena's song from Sir Henry Taylor's Philip van Artevelde (Act v. sc. i).

Quoth tongue of neither maid nor wife
To heart of neither wife nor maid:
“Lead we not here a jolly life
Betwixt the shine and shade?”
Quoth heart of neither maid nor wife
To tongue of neither wife nor maid:
“Thou wag'st, but I am worn with strife,
And feel like flowers that fade.

Reproductions

Angeli, DGR con 107 illustrazioni , 58.
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 49.
Wood, Drawings of DGR , plate xi.
Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 40.
Delaware Art Museum print.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1

File Name: s57.rap.xml