Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource : The Collection

A study for the oil painting The Beloved (The Bride, 1865-66), now in the Tate collection. The inspiration for the painting came from a passage in the Song of Solomon: 'She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework; the virgins that bear her fellows shall be her company.' Eight figure studies for the painting survive. For the young black attendant, there are studies of both male and female figures, Rossetti finally choosing the latter, although it is thought that he perhaps only used a male model.

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
2nd study for black girl [bottom right]. [Verso]: Study of / by D. G. Rossetti / April [?] 1865 / For the figure holding a golden / cup full of roes in the picture / of "the Beloved" from the Song / of Solomon / Bought together with other studies by / the artist by George P. Boyce. May 22. 1865 / Boyce. May 22 1865
Notes	-	Handwritten	-	Pencil

Exhibitions

Catalogue No.	Venue	Date(s)
Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti
127	Burlington Fine Arts Club, London	1883 - 1883

Pre-Raphaelite Drawings
-	Midlands Federation, Lichfield	1961 - 1961

Black Victorians: Black People in British Art 1800-1900
84	Manchester Art Gallery	2005-10-15 - 2006-01-06
84	Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery	2006-01-28 - 2006-04-02

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	under no. 177.

City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley	1939	Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby	p. 331.

Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
John Robert Wahl, Oswald Doughty	1967	Oxford University Press, Oxford	p. 535.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne
Virginia Surtees	1971	Oxford University Press, London	vol. 1, no. 182F, p. 106; vol. 2, pl. 269.

Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Andrea Rose	1977	The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London	no. 1F5.

Black Victorians: Black People in British Art 1800-1900
Jan Marsh	2005	Lund Humphries, Aldershot	p. 160.