Information
In 1851 Rossetti began a watercolour of 'The Return of Tibullus to Delia', inspired by a famous elegy by the Roman poet Tibullus in which the writer asks his mistress to await his return. Delia waits, spinning to while away the hours, listening to music played by an old woman and distractedly putting her long hair in her mouth. There are several studies in existence for the painting. The motif of sucking at hair was also used, probably coincidentally, by Frederick Sandys in his design illustrating Christina Rossetti's poem If (1906P844 in Birmingham's collection).
- Purchased and presented by subscribers, 1903.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
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Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
Study made (probably 1855) from his wife (nee Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal) whom he married in 1860, for the 'Delia' in the 'Tibullus' Return to Delia, by Dante G. Rossetti. [G. P. Boyce's hand] |
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reverse |
Handwritten |
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Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
108 |
Burlington Fine Arts Club, London |
1883 - 1883 |
|
Exposition retrospective de peinture anglaise |
151 |
Musee Moderne, Brussels |
1929-10-12 - 1929-12-01 |
|
Exposition Retrospective de Peinture Anglaise (XVIIIe et XIX siecles) |
49 |
Musée Moderne, Brussels |
1929-10-12 - 1929-12-01 |
|
Some Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawings |
- |
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth |
1955-07 - 1955 |
- |
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea |
1955 - 1955-10 |
|
Artists of Victoria's England |
47 |
Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, Florida |
1965-02-02 - 1965-03-14 |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet |
60 |
Royal Academy of Arts, London |
1973-01-13 - 1973-03-11 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Women |
19 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1985-10-09 - 1986-01-02 |
19 |
Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery |
1986-09-13 - 1986-10-19 |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
126 |
Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo |
1990-09-22 - 1990-11-14 |
126 |
Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Nagoya |
1990-11-17 - 1990-12-09 |
126 |
Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume |
1991-01-08 - 1991-02-14 |
|
Rossetti's Portraits of Elizabeth Siddal |
8 |
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
1991-03-05 - 1991-04-28 |
8 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
1991-05-16 - 1991-07-07 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
27 |
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
27 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
27 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
27 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
27 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
27 |
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery |
1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29 |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
31 |
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
2003-10-16 - 2004-01-18 |
31 |
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam |
2004-02-27 - 2004-06-06 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
119 |
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
2009-02-26 - 2009-05-24 |
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Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings |
A E Whitley |
1939 |
Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby |
p. 313. |
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Pre-Raphaelite Drawings and Watercolours |
|
1953 |
Arts Council of Great Britain |
p. 17 |
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne |
Virginia Surtees |
1971 |
Oxford University Press, London |
vol. 1, no. 62D, pp. 24-25; vol. 2, pl. 60. |
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Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
Andrea Rose |
1977 |
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London |
no. 1A11. |
|
Sotheby's catalogue, 14 February 1978 |
|
1978 |
Sotheby's, London |
no. 37. |
|
The Art of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Watercolours and Drawings of 1850-1855 |
A I Grieve |
1978 |
Real World Publications, Norwich |
pp. 56-59. |
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Highly Important Nineteenth Century European Paintings and Drawings, Sotheby's, 23 June 1981 |
|
1981 |
Sotheby's, London |
no. 15. |
|
Rossetti's Portraits of Elizabeth Siddal |
Virginia Surtees |
1991 |
Scolar Press, Aldershot |
no. 8. |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
Stephen Wildman |
1995 |
Arts Services International, Alexandria, Virginia |
p. 130. |
|
Fontane und die Bildende Kunst |
Claude Keisch, Moritz Wullen, Peter-Klaus Schuster |
1998 |
National Gallery, Berlin |
p. 114. |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
Edwin Becker, Elizabeth Prettejohn, Julian Treuherz |
2003 |
Waanders, Zwolle |
p. 154. |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
|
2009 |
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm |
cat.119, p.205 |
Provenance
Given by Rossetti to G.P.Boyce (1868); Charles Fairfax Murray. |
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