Mariana Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1870 April
Jane Burden Morris Willie Graham (the son of William Graham, who bought the picture), sat for the figure of the page. <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/> </section> <section type="texthistcomp"> <head>Textual History: Composition</head> <p/> </section> <section type="texthistrev"> <head>Textual History: Revision</head> <p/> </section> <section type="prodhist"> <head>Production History</head> <p>DGR made a quick sketch for this picture in <xref doc="a.sa169.s213.rap">the manuscript</xref> for the <xref doc="a.14-1869.raw">“<title level="wrk">Willowwood” sonnets that he gave as a present to William Stillman. This manuscript, and hence the sketch, probably dates from early 1870, when DGR was seeing a good deal of Stillman (see DGR's letter to Charles Eliot Norton, 22 January 1870, Fredeman, Correspondence , 70. 8 ). He set to work on the oil painting in April when he was staying at Barbara Bodichon's cottage in Robertsbridge. He told Bodichon in a letter of April 14 that he was “now doing [a portrait] of Mrs. Morris which I think about the best portrait I have made of her” (see Fredeman, Correspondence , 70.101 ). Two chalk drawings of the same subject, one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the other in a private collection, were both executed in 1868.

Reception

Iconographic

Pictorial

“Though differing in treatment, the. . .painting is closely related to the 1868 portrait of Mrs. Morris (no 372)” (see Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 121 ).

Historical

Literary

The picture takes its inspiration from Act I, scene 1 of <hi rend="i">Measure for Measure</hi> , one of DGR's favorite Shakespeare plays. “Mariana (here represented by Mrs. Morris) has been working on a piece of embroidery, but is now totally absorbed in the words of the boy's song, ‘Take, O take those lips away. . .’ which are inscribed on the lower member of the frame” (see Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 121 ).

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 70.8, 70.101. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 131, 158. Sharp, <hi rend="i">DGR: A Record and a Study</hi> , 216. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 121-122 (no. 213). WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi> , 66, 73.

Aberdeen Art Gallery oil painting Dante Gabriele Rossetti con 107 Illustrazioni Elena Rossetti Angeli 1906 0 Masterpieces of D. G. Rossetti (1828-1882): Sixty Reproductions of Photographs from the Original Oil-paintings 1923 0 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood J. Ernest Phythian 1905 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ernest Radford 1905 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life H. C. Marillier 1899 0 Mariana DGR 1870 1870 oil 7 Mariana DGR 1868 1868 chalk 2 Mariana DGR 1868 1868 red chalk 2 Mariana DGR 1870 April 1 Mariana in the South [print] Portrait of Jane Morris [print] unknown 1880-1900 (circa) Monogram, 1868, bottom right corner. Black and white photo print pasted on white/off-white board. 1 Mariana [print] DGR 1855-1913 (circa) Charcoal and cream print, mounted on cream board 1