Information
The figure represents Proserpine as the Empress of Hades. Proserpine was conveyed to Pluto's realm, where she became his bride. Her mother Ceres pleaded with Jupiter to return her to earth. Jupiter agreed providing she had not partaken of any of the fruit of Hades. However, she had eaten a single pomegranate grain and thus had to remain in the underworld.There are no fewer than eight versions of this composition, though few were completed, and they are all inscribed with Rossetti's poem of the same title. The doomed classical heroine is modelledon Jane Morris, with whom Rossetti had established an intimate relationship by July 1869. This version was painted for L. R. Valpy Esq. as a copy, on a reduced scale, of the Tate version. It was finished at Birchington, just a few days before Rossetti's death.
- Presented by the Trustees of the Public Picture Gallery Fund, 1927.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
- |
Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
DANTE GABRIELE ROSSETTI, 1882 |
- |
bottom left |
Painted |
- |
|
|
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
92 |
Burlington Fine Arts Club, London |
1883 - 1883 |
|
Ten Decades - A Review of British Taste, 1851-1951 |
97 |
RBA Galleries, London |
1951 - 1951 |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
151 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1984-03-07 - 1984-05-28 |
|
Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery |
41 |
Hong Kong Museum of Art |
1984-10-20 - 1984-12-02 |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
91 |
Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo |
1990-09-22 - 1990-11-14 |
91 |
Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Nagoya |
1990-11-17 - 1990-12-09 |
91 |
Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume |
1991-01-08 - 1991-02-14 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
111 |
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
111 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
111 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
111 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
111 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
111 |
Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery |
1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29 |
|
The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910 |
46 |
Tate Gallery, London |
1997-10-16 - 1998-01-04 |
|
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s |
12 |
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, The University of Birmingham |
2000-10-27 - 2001-01-14 |
12 |
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachussetts |
2001-02-11 - 2001-05-06 |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
155 |
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
2003-10-16 - 2004-01-18 |
155 |
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 303; pp. 172-74, 184, 199. |
|
A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
Oswald Doughty |
1949 |
Frederick Muller, London |
p. 636. |
|
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham: Catalogue of Paintings |
|
1960 |
City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham |
p. 128. |
|
Christie's Sale Catalogue, 20 October 1970 |
|
1970 |
Christie's, London |
no. 44. |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne |
Virginia Surtees |
1971 |
Oxford University Press, London |
vol. 1, no. 233R3, pp. 133-34. |
|
The Pre-Raphaelites |
Leslie Parris |
1984 |
Tate Gallery Publishing and Penguin Books, London |
pp. 231-32. |
|
Christie's Sale Catalogue, 27 November 1987 |
|
1987 |
Christie's, London |
no. 140. |
|
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s |
Paul Spencer-Longhurst |
2000 |
Scala Publishers, London |
no. 12 |
|
The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910 |
Andrew Wilton, Robert Upstone |
1997 |
Tate Gallery Publishing, London |
pp. 159-60. |
|
The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s |
Paul Spencer-Longhurst |
2000 |
Scala Publishers Ltd., London |
p. 58. |
|
Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
|
2003 |
Waanders, Zwolle |
p. 217. |
Provenance
Leonard. R. Valpy; William Imrie; Imrie sale, Christie's 28 June 1907 (lot 135), £462; Christie's, 29 May 1908 (lot 477) bought by Colonel James B. Gaskell for £477; Christie's, 30 April 1926 (lot 150), bought by Sampson for £357; bought by Public Picture Gallery Fund for £550, presented to Bimingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1927. |
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