Beauty and the Bird Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Beauty and the Bird DGR 1858 June 25 Private collection, London pen and India ink 34.3 x 25.4 cm monogram 25 June 1858 In Memoriam; This is a sketch drawn at Little Holland Hse by Rossetti—Reminiscence of Miss Herbert (partially scratched out with a knife: “an actress all the Pre-Raffaelites were in love with.”) G. Weldon Monogram located at middle right and the date at lower center. Two notes are inscribed in pencil on the drawing. In the lower center is DGR's endorsement and at the lower right Georgina Treherne has written a note on the occasion of the drawing. Surtees, “Beauty and the Bird”, 84-87. Commentary
Introduction

This drawing was first noticed in 1973 by Virginia Surtees (see bibliography). It is a sketch of Ruth Herbert, the beautiful young actress whom DGR first saw on the stage in early 1856. She served for a model in a number of DGR's pictures, and DGR also made several portraits of her, of which this is one.

Bibliographic

Surtees, “Beauty and the Bird”, 84-87.