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Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1855

Physical Description

Medium: watercolour

Dimensions: 14 x 12 1/2 in.

Production Description

Production Date: 1855

Exhibition History: B.F.A.C. 1883 (no.19); New Gallery 1897 (no.50); Tate 1923 (no.14); Brussels 1929 (no.13a), R.A., 1934 (no.839); Newcastle 1971 (no.23); Paris 1972 (no.229); R.A. 1973 (no.92); Tate 1984 (no.214)

Patron: John Ruskin

Date Commissioned: 1855

Original Cost: 30 guineas

Model: Elizabeth Siddal

Note: Siddal sat for the figure of Rachel

Provenance

Current Location: Tate Gallery

Catalog Number: 5228

Purchase Price: bequest

Archival History: John Ruskin; Ellen Heaton; Beresford Rimington Heaton (1940); Tate Gallery

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The watercolour illustrates an episode from Dante's Purgatorio, Canto XXVII. This is one of two watercolours dealing with subjects from Dante commissioned by Ruskin in April 1855. The other is Dante's Vision of Matilda Gathering Flowers .

Bibliography

Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , viii, 66-67.
Treuherz, Prettejohn, and Becker, DGR, 159-160 (no. 45).
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 1, 35-36 (no. 74).
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 82.

Reproductions

Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 82.
Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 66b recto.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1

File Name: s74.rap.xml