Information

In the Spring of 1871, Morris and Rossetti took joint tenancy of Kelmscott Manor, a sixteenth-century manor house by the Thames in Oxfordshire. Morris then went on an extended trip to Iceland, leaving his wife Jane and Rossetti to spend the summer there together. Several paintings of her were begun then, including the small oil 'Water Willow' (Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington), in which she holds branches of willow, a symbol of sorrow, with the house, church and river at Kelmscott in the background. In this study, Jane bears an even more soulful expression, and carries, with no little irony, a pansy - conventionally a token of fidelity and rembrance.

  • Purchased and presented by subscribers, 1903.
  • © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
Artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti -

Inscriptions

Type Position(s) Method Date(s) Notes
[monogram] 1871
Monogram top right Handwritten - Chalk
 

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti
19 The Rossetti Gallery, 1a, Old Bond Street, London 1883 - 1883
 
-
146 Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany 1968-09-30 - 1968
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet
338 Royal Academy of Arts, London 1973 - 1973
 
Pre-Raphaelite Women
31 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 1985-10-09 - 1986-02-01
31 Stoke on Trent Museum and Art Gallery 1986-09-13 - 1986-10-19
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
53 Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo 1990-09-22 - 1990-11-14
 
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England
95 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington 1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07
95 Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio 1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16
95 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington 1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15
95 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02
95 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia 1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10
 

Literature

Author(s) Date(s) Publisher Pages
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: an Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life
H C Marillier 1899 George Bell and Sons, London no. 245, p. 165.
 
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley 1939 Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby Not listed
 
The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy
William Gaunt 1942 Jonathon Cape, London p. 138.
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne
Virginia Surtees 1971 Oxford University Press, London vol. 1, no. 226A, pp. 127-28.
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Andrea Rose 1977 The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London no. 1G4.
 
Pre-Raphaelite Portraits
Andrea Rose 1981 The Oxford Illustrated Press, Yeovil p. 108.
 
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England.
Stephen Wildman 1995 Arts Services International, Alexandria, Virginia p. 277.

Provenance

Fanny Cornforth, Cornelius Cox, Charles Fairfax Murray

Associated people

Name Type
Jane Morris Artist's model

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