The Bower Meadow Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1872
Alexa Wilding Wilding is the woman in the right foreground Mrs. Stillman Marie Spartali Stillman is in the left foreground <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>“Using a canvas which already bore a landscape background painted in the company of Hunt at Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1850. . .—his only attempt at the Pre-Raphaelite outdoor method—Rossetti devised a clever composition, balancing seated and dancing female figures in a rhythmic harmony of complementary reds and greens. An <xref doc="a.s229b.rap">early study</xref> in pen and ink . . . shows a winged child between the two musicians, holding a bird. This may suggest a more symbolic concept of music, earthly and heavenly, and perhaps by implication also of love, human and divine. . . . The figure running across the distant meadow strikes an additionally enigmatic note” (<bibl> <author>Wildman</author>, <xref doc="a." link="dead" workcode="s229"> <title level="bk"> <hi rend="i">Visions of Love and Life</hi> , 280 ). Indeed, the painting has a kind of surrealist quality, an effect heightened by the strange building at the upper right.

Although the treatment is strongly abstract and symbolic, it is clear that the painting was inspired by DGR's time spent at Kelmscott during the summer and early fall of 1871. For this reason the picture should be compared with <hi rend="i">Water Willow</hi> .

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Though dated 1872 on the painting, it seems certain that DGR did most of the work on the picture in 1871. Leyland was negotiating for purchase of the work in January 1872 (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 72.10 ). The painting was finally bought in June 1872.

Reception

Iconographic

Pictorial

A slightly different version of the picture, executed initially as a pen and ink study currently in the Ashmolean, evolved to a finished pastel now in the Fitzwilliam.

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 72.10. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 171-172. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 128-130 (no. 229). Wildman, <hi rend="i">Visions of Love and Life</hi> , 279-280.

Manchester City Art Gallery oil painting Dante Gabriele Rossetti con 107 Illustrazioni Elena Rossetti Angeli 1906 0 The Bower Meadow, sketch DGR 1872 (circa) pen and ink on stationery 1 The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Studies Special Issue: A Rossetti Cabinet: A Portfolio of Drawings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti William E. Fredeman 1991 0 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life H. C. Marillier 1899 0 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872 1872 oil 3 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872? pastel 1 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872? pen and brown ink 1 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872 1872 coloured chalks on gray paper 1 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872 1872 black chalk over red chalk outline on pale green paper 1 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872 1872 black chalk, a few rough strokes of red chalk are unconnected with the drawing 1 The Bower Meadow DGR 1872 pen and ink with wash 1 Study of a head for the Bower Meadow DGR 1871-1872 black chalk on paper 1