Jane Morris seated in wicker chair, full length Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Parsons 1 © Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery [untitled] DGR and John Parsons 1865 June R.A., 1973; Pre-Raphaelite Photography, A British Council Exhibition, 1983; Dante Gabriel Rossetti Exhibition, UK90 Festival: Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, September 22 through November 14, 1990; Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Nagoya, November 21 through December 9, 1990; Ishibashi Museum of Art, Ishibashi Foundation, Kurume, January 6 through February 11, 1991 Birmingham City Museums and Art Gallery 821/42 The Victoria and Albert has two other prints, one larger (Record No. 819,42), the other much lighter and severely cropped (Record No. 1739/1939). photography collodion print 19.8 x 12.2 cm <artist/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>At least three copies of this pose survive, one in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, the other two in the Victoria and Albert Museum's <xref doc="a.bottomly.rad"> <title level="wrk"> <hi rend="i">Album of Portraits of Mrs. William Morris (Jane Burden). Posed by Rossetti, 1865</hi> .

The state of the two Victoria and Albert Museum prints tells much about DGR's involvement with these photographs. In the larger copy a good deal of space is left around the sitter, who is seated in DGR's garden, in full view, and facing to her right. A decorated screen is placed a few feet behind her; beyond that is foliage, though it is scarcely discernible as such. The print shows where Gordon Bottomly worked on the original print with a brush to disguise where the top of the print had been damaged during later efforts to mount it.

The smaller print in the album shows DGR intervening on the original photograph. In this case he has used a brush to paint on the print and smooth out Mrs. Morris's dress (along the left sleeve and also among the folds by her left leg). The second print also illustrates a characteristic alteration of another kind that one finds in the album prints. This second print is much lighter and has been cropped so that the screen takes up virtually the whole of the background.

Production History

Reception

Iconograpic

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Bartram, <hi rend="i">Pre-Raphaelite Photography</hi> , 38-40. Bartram, <hi rend="i">The Pre-Raphaelite Camera</hi> , chapter 5. <hi rend="i">DGR 1828-1882: An Exhibition</hi> , [Tokyo 1990] 185 (no. 147).