Information

Here Elizabeth Siddal is seen in Rossetti's studio at 14 Chatham Place, Blackfriars, London, drawing his portrait by lamplight. Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal first met in the winter of 1849-50. She acted as a model for several important Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and from 1852 began to sit regularly to Rossetti, who also described her as his pupil in letters to his sister Christina. A large proportion of her surving work as an artist dates from 1853-55, although no portrait by her of Rossetti is known to survive. The National Portrait Gallery owns a reproduction of this work (no. D9348).Recently the identity of Rossetti has been questioned (Christopher Newall). Is Rosetti drawing an imagined scene of himself in this scene or is it in fact someone else close to the Rossetis?

  • 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
Sept 1853 / DGR
Date bottom right Handwritten 1853 Date in brown ink. Initials in pencil.
 

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti
97 Burlington Fine Arts Club, London 1883 - 1883
 
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
211 City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham 1947-06-07 - 1947-07-27
 
Ruskin and his Circle
243 Arts Council of Great Britain 1964-01-17 - 1964-02-15
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet
45 Royal Academy of Arts, London 1973-01-13 - 1973-03-11
 
Pre-Raphaelite Women
20 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 1985-10-09 - 1986-01-02
20 Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery 1986-09-13 - 1986-10-19
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
2 Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo 1990-09-22 - 1990-11-14
2 Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Nagoya 1990-11-17 - 1990-12-09
2 Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume 1991-01-08 - 1991-02-14
 
The Primacy of Drawing: An Artist's View
120 Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery 1991-09-21 - 1992-02-16
120 Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery - - -
120 Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield - - -
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
22 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 2003-10-16 - 2004-01-18
22 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 2004-02-27 - 2004-06-06
 

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. 324; p. 59.
 
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley 1939 Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby p. 352.
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings
1947 Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London p. 10
 
'Admirable Introduction to the Study of Ruskin'
17 January 1964 The Times -
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne
Virginia Surtees 1971 Oxford University Press, London vol. 1, no. 440, p. 186; vol. 2, pl. 412.
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Andrea Rose 1977 The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London no. 2G1.
 
Pre-Raphaelite Portraits
Andrea Rose 1981 The Oxford Illustrated Press, Yeovil p. 89.
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Edwin Becker, Elizabeth Prettejohn, Julian Treuherz 2003 Waanders, Zwolle pp. 151-54.

Provenance

William Bell Scott; Scott Sale, Sotheby's 14 July 1892; Charles Fairfax Murray

Associated people

Name Type
Elizabeth Siddal Depicted
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Depicted

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