Copyright: ©Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Figure Studies
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1857 October 5
Physical Description
Medium: pen and brown ink
Dimensions: 10 x 11 3/4 in. (top edge cut)
Signature: D.G.R.
Date on Image: Oct. 5/57
Note: Initials and date are inscribed at lower right.
Production Description
Production Date: 1857 October 5
Original Cost: gift
Provenance
Current Location: Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery
Catalog Number: 689'34
Purchase Price: gift
Note: The sketch was presented by Emily Hughes in 1934.
Archival History: Arthur Hughes; Emily Hughes; Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery
Reproductions
-
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 494.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
File Name:
s705.rap.xml
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
These four studies, all drawn on a single sheet of paper, were presumably executed at Oxford while Hughs and Rossetti were at work on the Union murals. The studies include: (1) Jane Morris (before her marriage to William Morris) standing with an open book in profile to left; (2) William Morris in profile to left, with hat in his left hand; (3) child at full–face; (4) Jane Morris seated nearly in profile to left with her foot on a fender. Surtees asserts that figures (I), (2), and (4) recall those of Caricature of William Morris Presenting a Ring to his Future Wife ( vol. 1, 226).
Bibliography