Madonna Pietra Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Madonna Pietra DGR 1874 Koriyama City Museum of Art Charles Howell; Charles Fry; Viscount Leverhulme; Leverhulme Estate Sale, March 4, 1926, Anderson Galleries, New York (no. 268); Parke Bernet, October 14, 1953 (no.79); Robert Elkon Galleries, New York, 1965 pastel 35 3/4 x 25 1/2 in. <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>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, <xref doc="a.n6797.r58s9.vol1.rad" from="135" workcode="12d-1861.s237" link="dead"> <title> <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , 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 , Correspondence 76. 74 ).

Production History

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Iconograpic

Pictorial

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Bibliographic

<hi rend="i">DGR 1828–1882: An Exhibition</hi> , [Tokyo 1990] 44 (no. 47). Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 188. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 135 (no. 237).