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

The Blue Bower - Female Head Study

By Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1865

Accession number: 1931P59

Pencil on paper.

Width: 281 mm

Height: 400 mm

Head and shoulders of a female, head turned slightly to the right. Artist's monograph and date to the left, above the shoulder.The inscription hidden behind the mount ('the Elephant') is believed to refer to Rossetti's pet name for Miss Cornforth. However it is also believed, by Dr Paul Spencer-Longhurst, to be quite out of character with the work and may have been added later.

Information

This is thought to be a study for 'The Blue Bower' at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. In the past the model has been identified as Ruth Herbert, but is now considered to be Fanny Cornforth. There is also a second drawing, similar but more detailed, which was bought by George Price Boyce.

Bequeathed by James Richardson Holliday, 1927.
© Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association	Artist	Organisation
Artist	Dante Gabriel Rossetti	-

Inscriptions

Type	Position(s)	Method	Date(s)	Notes
[monogram] 1865
Monogram	middle left	Handwritten	-	Pencil

Exhibitions

Catalogue No.	Venue	Date(s)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
34	Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo	1990-09-22 - 1990-11-14
34	Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Nagoya	1990-11-17 - 1990-12-09
34	Ishibashi Museum of Art, Kurume	1991-01-08 - 1991-02-14

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. 353.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882, The Paintings and Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonne
Virginia Surtees	1971	Oxford University Press, London	vol. 1, no. 554, p. 203; vol. 2, pl. 430.

Pre-Raphaelite Drawings: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Andrea Rose	1977	The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London	no. 3A12.

The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s
Paul Spencer-Longhurst	2000	Scala Publishers, London	no. 36

Provenance

James Richardson Holliday; bequeathed to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1927; remained with Mrs Holliday until 1931.

Associated people

Name	Type
Fanny Cornforth	Artist's model

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