Venus Verticordia (reduced replica) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Venus Verticordia (reduced replica) DGR 1864 R.A. 1883 (no.312); Port Sunlight 1948 (no.166) The Viscount Leverhulme George Rae, £105; Viscount Leverhulme; Inherited by the present owner watercolour 14 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. monogram 1864 The monogram and date are inscribed at lower left. Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial Angeli, DGR con 107 illustrazioni , 117 Stephens, Dante Gabriel Rossetti “The picture represents a tall, massively-built woman?no spiritual goddess of beauty?undraped and standing in a bower of clustering honeysuckle which hides her to the waist. Above she is bowered in roses?such a glorious wealth of flowers as compelled even Ruskin's admiration, while disliking the picture itself, the painting, and everything else connected with it. In her left hand she holds the apple, the prize of her beauty; in her right a dart, upon which is poised for an instant a delicate sulphur butterfly. Others are hovering round like moths at a candle, symbolical of the lovers who adore for one day the power of Love which remains eternal. Behind is the grove of Venus, and a blue bird winging its way through space” (Marillier 134). Fanny Cornforth Fanny Cornforth may have been a model for this picture, as Rossetti painted most of it during a visit with her to Paris in November 1864. Mrs. Knewstub Mrs. Knewstub, the wife of Rossetti's assistant in 1864, sat for a watercolour version of this picture and her face may originally have figured in this particular replica. 1877, 1883 The painting may have been partly repainted in 1877, and was retouched according to the 1883 R.A. Catalogue, when the present face was probably introduced. <artist/> <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> When Surtees points out that much of the picture was<quote>“done in Paris in Nov. 1864 while on a visit with Fanny Cornforth”</quote> (<bibl> <xref doc="a.n6797.r58s9.vol1.rad" from="100" workcode="4-1868.s173">Surtees</xref>, <pages>vol. 1, 100</pages> </bibl>) she is implicitly gesturing to the famous stylistic turn that DGR's work made in the early 1860s (from the more chaste manner of the earlier work to the voluptuous style of the later). The picture exhibits some variations from the oil painting:<quote>“in the action of the dart and the pose of the hands, also in the fall of the hair, here worn in a fringe on the forehead; the butterflies on the halo omitted, but one is poised on the apple”</quote> (<bibl> <xref doc="a.n6797.r58s9.rad" from="100" workcode="4-1868.s173">Surtees</xref>, <pages>vol. 1, 100</pages> </bibl>).</p> </section> <section type="prodhist"> <head>Production History</head> <p> This water-color is a smaller replica done at the time (November 1864) he was working on the <xref doc="a.s173.rap">major oil painting</xref> of the work. He finished this work at that time, but in 1877 he retouched and perhaps repainted the work,<quote>“when the present face was introduced, which in style belongs to a later period than the date of the water-colour”</quote> (<bibl> <xref doc="a.n6797.r58s9.rad" from="100" workcode="4-1868.s173">Surtees</xref>, <pages>vol. 1, 100</pages> </bibl>).</p> </section> <section type="recepthist"> <head>Reception</head> <p/> </section> <section type="icon"> <head>Iconographic</head> <p/> </section> <section type="pictorial"> <head>Pictorial</head> <p/> </section> <section type="historical"> <head>Historical</head> <p/> </section> <section type="literary"> <head>Literary</head> <p/> </section> <section type="autobio"> <head>Autobiographical</head> <p/> </section> <section type="biblio"> <head>Bibliographic</head> <p> <bibl> <author>Angeli</author>, <xref doc="a.ac-angeli.nd497.r8.a77r.rad" from="117" workcode="9-1879.s162"> <title level="bk"> <hi rend="i">DGR con 107 illustrazioni</hi> , 117. Benedetti, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 249. Doughty, <hi rend="i">A Victorian Romantic</hi> , 326-329. Faxon, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 136-137. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 134-135. <hi rend="i">The Pre-Raphaelites, Tate 1984.</hi> , 208-209. WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi> , 49-50. WMR, <hi rend="i">Rossetti Papers 1862 to 1870</hi> , 132-137. Sharp <hi rend="i">DGR: A Record and a Study</hi> , 204-206. Stephens, <hi rend="i">Athenaeum</hi> (21 October 1865), 546; Stephens, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 66. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 98-100 (no. 173.r.1). Swinburne, <hi rend="i">Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868</hi> ,49. Waugh, <hi rend="i">Rossetti: His Life and Works</hi> , 126-128.