Madonna Pietra

DGR thought to do this painting early in 1874, when he wrote to his brother about this pastel version he had finished. Surtees describes the picture, now in a private collection, as a “Half-length figure of a female nude turned slightly to the right. She holds a crystal globe in her right hand and her left hand is raised to her shoulder; her long auburn hair, worn in a thick fringe on the forehead, covers her left shoulder” (see Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné, I. 135). A sketch, clothed and in three-quarter length, survives. DGR's notebook entry projecting the picture has the figure seated on a stone.

The pastel was originally owned by Charles Howell. It passed from Howell to Charles Fry, perhaps in 1876 (see DGR's letter to Fry, 21 April 1876, Fredeman , Correspondence76. 74).

• DGR 1828–1882: An Exhibition, [Tokyo 1990] 44 (no. 47).
• Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 188.
• Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, 135 (no. 237).