Il Ramoscello

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1865
Model: Amy Graham (According to WMR, this is a portrait of one of the daughters of William Graham, though Marillier denies it.)

Bibliography

◦ Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial, 139

◦ WMR, DGR Designer and Writer, 71

◦ Sharp, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 197

◦ Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné, I. 104 (no. 181)

Scholarly Commentary

Production History

DGR sent the picture to Gambart on 2 November 1865 and added a note: “I send the Bellebuona, a name formed of course from the Italian words ‘Bella e Buona,’ ‘Fair & Good.’ I have already enlarged the picture as much as it will bear with advantage. The background, being a plain tint, should not be too large” (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 65. 157 ). A pencil and sepia study for the picture is recorded but its whereabouts are not known.

Literary

When DGR made this picture he associated it with a poem he wrote at the same time, titled (as was the picture at that point) Bella e Buona. He later changed the poem's name to “Plighted Promise” when he came to include it in his 1870 Poems, thus erasing the “double work” status that poem and picture originally had.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: s181.raw.xml