Hesterna Rosa

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1853

Physical Description

Medium: pen and ink
Dimensions: 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.
Signature: Dante Rossetti
Date on Image: 1853
Note: Inscribed below the drawing: “Composed—1850—drawn, and given to his P. R. Brother Frederic G. Stephens—1853”. The signature and date are not in DGR's hand and appear to have been added at different times. The plate reproduced in Wood's Drawings of D. G. Rossetti has only the signature. The same picture in Surtees has both the signature and date inscribed at lower left.

Production Description

Production Date: 1853
Exhibition History: 4 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, Pre–Raphaelite Exhibition, 1857 (no.60); R.A., 1883 (no.334); State Galleries of Australia, 1962 (no.66)

Provenance

Current Location: Tate Gallery
Catalog Number: 4626
Archival History: F.G. Stephens; Lt.–Colonel H. F. Stephens Bequest

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This drawing is the earliest known version of the work.

Bibliography

Hesterna Rosa
Copyright: ©Tate, London 2004

Included Text

Note: Below the image are eight lines, in two columns, of Elena's song from Sir Henry Taylor's Philip van Artevelde (Act v. sc. i).
  • Quoth tongue of neither maid nor wife
  • To heart of neither wife nor maid:
  • “Lead we not here a jolly life
  • Betwixt the shine and shade?”
  • Quoth heart of neither maid nor wife
  • To tongue of neither wife nor maid:
  • “Thou wag'st, but I am worn with strife,
  • And feel like flowers that fade.

Reproductions

  1. image

    Angeli, DGR con 107 illustrazioni , 58.
  2. image

    Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 49.
  3. image

    Wood, Drawings of DGR , plate xi.
  4. image

    Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 40.
  5. image

    Delaware Art Museum print.
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
File Name: s57.rap.xml