Jane Morris standing, in marquee Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Parsons 1 © V&A Picture Library [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 Victoria and Albert Museum 1740.1939 The Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery has a print of the photograph (19.4 x 14.6 cm) that is cropped down like this copy; the V & A owns a second copy. photography collodion print 19.9 x 14.9 cm The uncropped version of this picture in the Victoria and Albert collection measures 25.3 x 20.7 cm. (Record No. 823/42). <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>As with a number of photographs in the <xref doc="a.sa140.raw">Jane Morris series</xref>, at least three copies of this pose survive, <xref doc="a.sa140ggg.rap">one</xref> print in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, this copy (which is, like the latter, a nineteenth-centry print), and <xref doc="a.sa140gg.rap">another (modern) print</xref> also 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> .

This picture is one of the most remarkable in the series, and the two prints that are preserved in the Victoria and Albert album make a nice contrast. Mrs. Morris is posed outdoors against the backdrop of a billowing canopy, with her hands clasped at her midriff. She is turned facing the camera, though she looks away to the right. The other V & A print is a modern print and shows the composition of the original negative. The Birmingham print, which is a replica of this cropped version, does not display the framing effect that comes through in this image.

This pose is very close in style to another pose also composed outdoors in the marquee. Mrs. Morris' odd posture indicates that she must be half standing, half sitting on some sort of pedestal.

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

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 6. <hi rend="i">DGR 1828-1882: An Exhibition</hi> [Tokyo 1990], 187 (no. 153).