Information

This is a design for a wood-engraving to illustrate Christina Rossetti's poem 'If' published in 'The Argosy,' 1866 (vo. 1, no. 4, March, p. 336):If he would come to-day, today, Oh what a day to-day would be! Sandys gratefully accepted the opportunities offered by the burgeoning demand for book and magazine illustration in the 1860s, and quickly established a reputation that lasted throughout the century. The poem reflects on the theme of melancholy love and was later re-titled 'Hope against Hope'. In this illustration Sandys sets a lone female figure against a landscape, brooding on the absence of her lover. Another drawing of this subject was acquired by the Huntington Art Gallery, California, in 1974 (see the Huntington Annual Report, 1973-74, p. 30).

  • Purchased and presented by subscribers, 1906.
  • © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
Artist Frederick Sandys -

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
Winter exhibition
283a Royal Academy of Arts, London 1905 - 1905
 
Exposition retrospective de peinture anglaise (XVIIIe-XIXe) (Retrospective Exhibition of English Painting)
160 Musée Moderne, Brussels 1929-10-12 - 1929-12-01
 
Exhibition of British Art c. 1000-1860
1236 Royal Academy of Arts, London 1934-01-06 - 1934-03-10
 
English Drawings and Engravings
311 Museum Toma Stelian, Bucharest 1935 - -
311 Vienna - - -
311 Prague - - 1936
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings
64 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London 1947-09 - 1947-09
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings and Watercolours
73 Cambridge Arts Council Gallery 1953-05-16 - 1953
73 Norwich Assembly Rooms 1953 - 1953
73 Bristol City Art Gallery 1953 - 1953
73 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne - - 1953-10-24
 
Some Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawings
65 National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 1955-07 - 1955-08
65 Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea 1955-10 - 1955-10
 
Praraffaeliten
146 Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden 1973-11-23 - 1974
146 Stadelsche Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt 1974 - 1974-05-05
 
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904
276 Brighton Museum and Art Gallery 1974-05-07 - 1974-07-14
276 Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield 1974 - 1974
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings
73 Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery 1976-05-02 - 1976-06-20
 
The Pre-Raphaelites
241 Tate Gallery, London 1984-03-07 - 1984-05-28
 
Pre-Raphaelite Women
34 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 1985-10-09 - 1986-01-02
34 Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery 1986-09-13 - 1986-10-19
 
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England
83 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington 1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07
83 Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio 1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16
83 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington 1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15
83 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02
83 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia 1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10
83 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29
 
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s
- Barber Institute of Arts, University of Birmingham 2000 - 2000
 
Frederick Sandys
no cat. no Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery 2001-10 - 2002-01
 
The Pre-Raphaelites
155 Nationalmuseum, Stockholm 2009-02-26 - 2009-05-24
 

Literature

Author(s) Date(s) Publisher Pages
From Hogarth to Keene
Henry Reitlinger 1938 Metheun, London pl. 45.
 
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley 1939 Bemrose & Sons Ltd., Derby p.382
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings
1947 Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London p. 15
 
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings and Watercolours
1953 Arts Council of Great Britain, London p. 22
 
Some Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawings
1955 Arts Council of Great Britain, Welsh Office, Cardiff p. 21
 
Victorian Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours, Sotheby's, 10 April 1973
1973 Sotheby's, London no. 299.
 
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England
Stephen Wildman 1995 Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia p. 252.
 
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s
Paul Spencer-Longhurst 2000 Scala Publishers, London no. 41
 
Frederick Sandys 1829-1904: A Catalogue Raisonné
Betty Elzea 2001 Antique Collectors' Club in association with Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service no. 2.B.87, p. 228.
 
The Pre-Raphaelites
2009 Nationalmuseum, Stockholm cat.155, p.219

Provenance

James Anderson Rose, sold at his death at Christie's 5 May 1891 (part of lot 90) , bought by Charles Fairfax Murray for £6.6.0.

Associated people

Name Type
Christina Rossetti Verse by

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