Commentary
Introduction
Triple portraits have a long tradition in the history of art, and have been commissioned from
painters by patrons from Charles I to Cardinal Richelieu, who wished to have their busts
sculpted by artists whose distance precluded their actually sitting for the work. Although DGR
would certainly have been familiar with well-known works such as van Dyck's
Charles I in Three Positions
, or Champaigne's
Triple Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu
(in the National Gallery from 1869), his triple portraits of Alexa Wilding and May
Morris were not painted as aide-mémoires for sculptors, but rather as meditations on the beauty of one
female form, rotated in space. DGR makes little effort to disguise the multiplication of the
model's identity, or to distinguish the three figures from one another. The title
itself suggests duplication. At the same time,
these works recall the Three Graces, or even the Three Fates,
subjects that long interested DGR and are evident in works like The
Maids of Elfen-Mere or The Maries at the Foot of the Cross.
Textual History: Composition
Textual History: Revision
Production History
In the earliest, chalk versions of Rosa Triplex, Alexa Wilding
sat for each of the heads. When, in February of 1874, DGR had difficulty getting Alexa Wilding
to sit for him in order execute a replica, he instead had May Morris model for
the watercolour (see
Pedrick,
<hi rend="i">Life with Rossetti</hi>
, 174).
Pictorial
The earliest sketches have a dynamic quality absent from
the finished watercolour and chalk drawings. The chalk drawings in particular eschew
narrative, the figures against a plain dark ground, and behind a rough table or ledge. WMR
notes that the 1874 watercolour version of this picture was intended
to be a pendant, first to
Hesterna Rosa
and then to The Return of Tibullus to Delia, both
then in the collection of Frederick Craven (see
WMR,
<hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi>
, 75
). Considering the highly literary and narrative nature of
these multifigure compositions, DGR probably intended
Rosa
Triplex
to be an appropriate companion to
either work for its chromatic
resonance.
Historical
Other examples of DGR's interest in the multiplication of a single female form include A
Parable of Love, Venus surrounded by mirrors reflecting her in
different views, How They Met Themselves and Bonifazio's Mistress. These works envision the mystical act of
duplicating both the spirit and form of a figure through the practical art of painting and its
complicated reproductive capacity.
Bibliographic
Angeli,
<hi rend="i">DGR con 107 illustrazione</hi>
, 139.
Marillier,
<hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi>
, 155-156, 178.
Pedrick,
<hi rend="i">Life with Rossetti</hi>
, 174.
Radford,
<hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi>
, xvi, 44.
Surtees,
<hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi>
, vol. 1, 135-136 (no. 238).
Surtees,
<hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi>
, vol. 2, no. 348.
Surtees,
<hi rend="i">Diaries of George Price Boyce</hi>
, 61.
WMR,
<hi rend="i">DGR Designer and Writer</hi>
, 64, 75.