Commentary
Introduction
Ruskin, who commissioned this picture, praised it highly (see his letters to Ellen Heaton of November 1855 in
Surtees,
<hi rend="i">A Catalogue
Raisonné</hi>
, I. 35-36.). The two women, seated at the fountain in the Earthly Paradise, “symbolise the active and the contemplative life. Leah, the active one, works with tendrils of honeysuckle and carries a red rose in her long loose hair. Both flowers had connotations of sexual attraction for Rossetti. She wears a green dress, the colour of life. Rachel is dressed in purple, the colour Rossetti often associates with inactivity and sometimes even with death” (
Grieve,
<hi rend="i">The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984</hi>
, 276
). This dichotomy of
“Soul's Beauty”
and
“Body's Beauty”
of course runs throughout all of DGR's work.
Textual History: Composition
Textual History: Revision
Production History
In April 1855 Ruskin proposed to DGR that he do a series of seven pictures illustrating the
<hi rend="i">Purgatorio</hi>
. DGR executed two, this picture and the watercolour
<hi rend="i">Dante's Vision of Matilda Gathering Flowers</hi>
. The two were completed sometime in the late summer or early fall 1855, after Madox Brown had suggested various improvements, in particular to this picture. On 3 September DGR told Brown that it had been greatly improved and that Ruskin paid £30 for it. In November Ellen Heaton became involved with the picture through Ruskin's generosity and it passed to her at that time (see
Fredeman,
<hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi>
,55. 45; 55. 57
).
Literary
The literary source is
Dante,
<hi rend="i">Purgatorio</hi>
, Canto XXVII. 94-108
.
Bibliographic
Marillier,
<hi rend="i"/>DGR: An Illustrated Memorial
, 66-67.
Surtees,
<hi rend="i">A Catalogue
Raisonné</hi>
, vol. 1, 35-36 (no. 74).
<hi rend="i">The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984</hi>
, 276-277
Treuherz, Prettijohn, Becker,
<hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi>
, 159-160.