Information

In 1861 the architect John Pollard Seddon (1827-1906) commissioned Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. to produce ten decorative panels, depicting the Fine and Applied Arts, for an oak cabinet of his own design (now at the V&A). On Brown's suggestion the four door panels were decorated with scenes from the honeymoon of the medieval King René of Anjou, an enthusiastic patron of the arts, whose life had been popularised by Sir Walter Scott in his novel 'Anne of Geierstein' (1829) (John P. Seddon, 'King René's Honeymoon Cabinet,' London, 1898, p.6). This is a study for 'Music' showing King René kissing his new wife as they sits opposite each other playing a conjoined, piano-like instrument. Burne-Jones designed 'Painting' and 'Sculpture' and Brown designed 'Architecture.' The cabinet was made by the furniture firm owned by Seddon's father and exhibited in the Medieval Court at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. On the back of this drawing are two sketches of an animal strongly resembling a wombat. In the 1860s Rossetti kept a menagerie of animals in his garden which included a wombat. These drawings may be sketches for some of the animals in the illustrations he designed for Christina Rossetti's 'Goblin market and other Poems' (pub. 1862).

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

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
Artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti -

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. 327.
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne
Virginia Surtees 1971 Oxford University Press, London vol. 1, no. 175B, pp. 101-02; vol. 2, pl. 257.
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Andrea Rose 1977 The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London no. 1E6.

Provenance

Fanny Cornforth, Charles Fairfax Murray

Associated people

Name Type
Sir Walter Scott Author

Related work & resources

Discuss this work

Start a discussion about this work.

You need to login to discuss this work. Click here to login.

If you are not yet registered click here to become a member.
Find out more about membership