The Quest of the Holy Grail

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Elizabeth Siddal

General Description

Date: 1855 (circa)

Bibliography

◦ Benedetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti., 194.

◦ Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial, 56.

The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984, 279

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

As the inscription on the watercolour shows, the picture is the joint production of DGR and Elizabeth Siddal. Grieve comments that “the composition was invented by Elizabeth Siddal and it was executed jointly by her and Rossetti” ( The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984, 279

Production History

The picture probably belongs to 1855, when Ruskin began to pay Siddal for any work that she might do.

Literary

The subject is taken from Tennyson's poem “Sir Galahad”, lines 37-48. Grieve surmises that “the design may have been made initially in connection with a plan to involve Elizabeth Siddal in the illustrated edition of Tennyson's poems published by Moxon in 1857” (see Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial, 56 , and Grieve, The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984, 279 ).

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