The Gate of Memory Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1857
1864 <artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>Surtees aptly comments: “On the right a prostitute stands at dusk under an archway, watching a group of dancing children and recognizes herself as once she was in the figure of a seated, flower-crowned child. . . . Fine houses with lighted windows suply the background to this sombre and poignant drawing”. The watercolour is of course closely related to the poem <xref doc="a.3-1848.raw"> <title level="wrk">“Jenny” and the double work <hi rend="i">Found</hi> .

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Production History

DGR's watercolour “The Gate of Memory” was painted in 1857 and repainted in 1864. There is a pencil drawing of the scene, and a study for the main female figure.

Reception

Iconographic

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

The picture references a scene in William Bell Scott's poem “Maryanne”, as the couplet inscribed below the pencil drawing shows: “Come all ye pretty maidens/ And dance along with this.” Given the subject of the picture, the text is darkly ironical.

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 47, 82. Radford, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 8. Sharp, <hi rend="i">DGR: A Record and a Study</hi> , 160-61. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> vol. 1 , 56-57 (plate 136). Wood, <hi rend="i">Drawings of DGR</hi> , [99] (plate XL).

Watercolour Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ernest Radford 1905 0 Drawings of D. G. Rossetti Wood, T. Martin 1907 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life H. C. Marillier 1899 0 The Gate of Memory DGR 1857 1864 watercolour 4 The Gate of Memory DGR 1857 (circa) pencil 1 The Gate of Memory DGR 1857 (circa) pencil 1