The Beloved (Rossetti)
The Beloved | |
---|---|
Artist | Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
Year | 1865–1866 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 80 cm × 76 cm (31 in × 30 in) |
Location | Tate Britain, London |
The Beloved (also The Bride) is an
The bride, caught in the action of moving back her veil, is attended by four virginal bridesmaids and an African page, who contrasts strikingly with the red hair and pale skin of the bride, and the varying shades of brunette hair and skin tones of the four bridesmaids. It has been suggested that this colour contrast, carefully painted as a frame to the bride's features, was influenced by Édouard Manet's controversial painting Olympia, in progress when Rossetti visited Manet's studio in late 1864 while working on The Beloved, and the painting also owes much to the works of Titian.[4]
In many respects, the painting fits into the series of "bust-length oil paintings of beautiful women" which were Rossetti's main painted output from 1859 to about 1867. These were a conscious change of style, to explore painterly effects of (in his words) "flesh painting" and colour, abandoning the densely packed narrative scenes, in media other than oil painting, he had produced over most of the 1850s, when he followed more closely the ideals of the
It is generally agreed that Rossetti set out to show a range of skin colours within the figures, but the identification and interpretation of these varies greatly.
History
The painting was commissioned in 1863 by Rossetti's regular patron, the
Work progressed rather slowly, perhaps as Rossetti was working on other paintings at the same time, including
It has also been suggested that the general composition was influenced by Titian's Allegory of Marriage (formerly so-called Allegory of Alfonso d'Avalos) in the Louvre,[11] with three 17th-century copies (one a watercolour) in the Royal Collection.[12] This is an allegory of marriage, with a number of figures arranged around a central object.
In March 1865 Rossetti painted a "Japanese" dress over the main figure, and replaced the previous female black ("mulatto" according to art historians) child with a male one, preferring his darker skin tone .[13] By the autumn it was sufficiently complete to be shown to the leading art critic F.G. Stephens, who described it in some detail in the 21 October 1865 issue of the Athenaeum magazine,[10] of which he was the editor for art, noting that: "As she unveils, they [the attendants] look with different expressions for the effect of the disclosure on the coming man".[14] Stephens and Rossetti were close, and Rossetti would have seen the critique before publication. It appears Stephens sometimes allowed Rossetti to write such things himself, under Stephens's name.
Stephens praised Rossetti for his use of colour. However, he pointed out some technical errors. For example, Stephens claimed that the black child's hands look unnatural considering the vase that the child is holding. Furthermore, Stephens pointed out that the child's necklace does not seem to lie flat on his chest. Rather, the ornament is positioned in a way that the viewers of the piece could see its patterns and details.[15]
Rossetti did further work over the winter, hence his date of "1865-6" on the canvas. The painting was first exhibited, for a single day, at the
In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, whose art entries were supervised by Rossetti's brother, William Michael Rossetti, Rossetti's biography was by F.G. Stephens and another close friend, Theodore Watts-Dunton. In the biography the painting is praised highly:
The same elements, energy, a sympathetic and poetic scheme of colour, and composition of a fine order, combined with far greater force and originality in "The Bride", or "The Beloved", that magnificent illustration of The Song of Solomon. The last named is a life-size group of powerfully coloured and diversely beautiful damsels accompanying their mistress with music and with song on her way to the bridegroom. This picture, as regards its brilliance, finish, the charms of four lovely faces and the splendour of its lighting, occupies a great place 'in the highest grade of modern art of all the world. It is likewise, so far as the qualities named are concerned, the crowning piece of Rossetti's art, and stands for him much as the “ Sacred and Profane Love ” of Titian represents that master.
The painting was exhibited at the
Frame and inscription
The 1873 return to Rossetti's studio was probably when the frame was fitted;[10] Rossetti often designed his own frames and inscriptions on them.
Between conventional small mouldings, the widest zone of the gilded wood frame has a vegetal scroll of "wavy fronds" on a dotted background, with four raised roundels with a geometrical design, each midway along a side. A small wooden plaque is in the centre of the bottom member, with painted inscriptions: "The Beloved" large in the centre, and two sets of verses from the Bible on the sides, run together and slightly edited. On the left the verses are from the Song of Solomon, and on the right from Psalm 45:[20]
- My beloved is mine and I am his (Song, 2:16)
- Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (Song 1:2)
- for thy love is better than wine (Song 1:2)
- She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of
- needlework: the virgins that be her fellows shall
- bear her company, and shall be brought unto thee (Psalm 45:14)[21]
Ideals of beauty
While the painting is mainly regarded as a celebration of feminine beauty in general, it has been interpreted as a celebration of a specific type of beauty. Most art historians assert that all the women are intended to be beautiful,[22] "diversely beautiful damsels" with "the charms of four lovely faces" as the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica put it.[23]
The black child
The black child is another element that makes this piece unusual in Rossetti's paintings of the period. Prior to the 1990s, not much notice was taken of the black child other than as a colour contrast for aesthetic effect. But since 2000 the child has become the primary focus of academic discussion. The curator and writer Jan Marsh, claimed that the child "owes his presence in The Beloved to . . . current Abolitionist campaigning" taking place in the United States during the Civil War.[24] The art historian Matthew Francis Rarey has disputed the idea that Rossetti intended to make a political statement, arguing instead that the painter included the child specifically in an effort to transcend politics, attempting a "figuration of Blackness independent of political implication or moral value."[25]
The models
Rossetti mostly used a small group of models, and often changed the model during the development of a work, as he did with Venus Verticordia,[26] and even repainted the face with a different one some years after initial completion, as with Lady Lilith slightly later. In both cases the final model was the redhead Alexa Wilding. There is some disagreement as to whose was the final face used for the central figure. He seems to have begun with Marie Ford,[27] but may have changed to Alexa Wilding;[28] the hair colour suggests this. Rossetti's brother said it was an (otherwise unknown) "Miss MacKenzie".[29]
The known models for the six figures include:
- Alexa Wilding (front, the bride) - see above
- Ellen Smith (left)
- Marie Ford (back left)
- Fanny Eaton (1835–1924) (back right)
- Keomi Gray (1849–1914) (front right)[28]
While the other models are looking directly at the viewer, that is to say the bridegroom,[30] Gray is the only one who has her head turned away to the side. She was a Romani (gypsy). It has been claimed that she has her face turned away to symbolize the resistance from the stereotypes that Romani people faced during this time, and that it also shows Rossetti's uncertainties about the sexuality of gypsies and his broader interest in Romani culture.[31]
Fanny Eaton was the model for the half-seen face at the back between the central bride and Keomi Gray at the right. She was born in Jamaica, probably to a recently-emancipated slave mother, and a father who was a British soldier. She was used as a model by several artists, whose depictions of her striking features varied her skin tones to suit their subjects; she was painted as the mother of Moses, and as an African slave. She married a cab-driver in 1859, and when not modelling worked as a cook and cleaner.
Both male and female children were used as models for the initial studies of the child attendant. Gabriel is the name of one of the children who modelled for this figure.[32]
See also
Notes
- ^ Page at Tate Britain, where in late 2022 it was not on display
- ^ Treuherz, Julian; Prettejohn, Elizabeth; Becker, Edwin (2003). Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Thames &. Hudson.
- ^ a b c Tate, 210
- ^ J. Treuherz, E. Prettejohn, and E. Becker. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Thames & Hudson (2003).
- ^ Tate, 166, 190-191, 274-282, 284, 190 quoted, 191 quoting from a letter to William Bell Scott in 1859
- ^ Hilton, 184-186; Tate, 193, 196, 200, 208-209
- ^ Tate, 214
- ^ Tate, 210-211, 210 quoted; Dearing, 185
- ^ Tate, 208
- ^ a b c Tate, 211
- ^ Tate, 211; in fact d'Avalos is no longer thought to be connected to this (see RC ref)
- ^ Titian's original had been in the collection of Charles I. Royal Collection page
- ^ Tate, 211; Dearing, 184-185. At least scholars seem content that the final child is male.
- ^ Tate, 211, quoting Stephens
- ^ Waugh, Evelyn; Brennan, Michael (2017). The Good Years, 1862-1867: In Rossetti, His Life and Works (16 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 105–109.
- ^ Tate, 210-211, 211 quoted
- ^ Archive
- ^ Tate page, Gallery label
- ^ Tate Britain – Monna Vanna
- ^ Tate, 210; Dearing, 183
- Authorised Version text, which is "the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee", Biblegateway
- ^ Hilton, 186
- ^ Passage quoted above
- ^ Marsh, Jan (1999). Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet. pp. 291–292.
- S2CID 221192549.
- ^ Venus Verticordia, Rossetti Archive
- ^ Tate, 211; Archive
- ^ a b Walker, Kirsty Stonell. "Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Models". ArtUK.org. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
- ^ Dearing, 181; Archive
- ^ Dearing, 184; Tate, 211
- ^ Dearing (page needed)
- ^ "The Beloved - Study for the Black Girl". Rossetti Archive Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
References
- "Archive": Rossettiarchive.org page on the work
- Dearing, Stewart, "Painting the other within: Gypsies according to the Bohemian artist in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries", Romani Studies, 2010, Vol. 21: 2, Liverpool University Press, doi:10.3828/rs.2010.7., online
- Hilton, Timothy, The Pre-Raphaelites, 1970, London: Thames and Hudson, New York: H. N. Abrams. ISBN 0810904241
- "Tate", The Pre-Raphaelites, 1984 (exhibition catalogue, various authors, but most Rossetti entries by Alastair Grieve), Tate Gallery, London, ISBN 0713916389
- Treuherz, Julian, Prettejohn, Elizabeth, and Becker, Edwin (2003). Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Thames & Hudson.
Further reading
- Ash, Russell (1995). Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Pavilion Books.
- Doughty, Oswald (1949) A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti London: Frederick Muller
- Fredeman, William E. (Ed.) (2002-8) The correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 7 Vols. Brewer, Cambridge.
- Linafelt, Tod (2002). "Biblical Love Poetry (...and God)". Journal of the American Academy of Religion 70 (2).
- Surtees, Virginia (1971). Dante Gabriel Rossetti. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Todd, Pamela (2001). Pre-Raphaelites at Home, New York: Watson-Giptill Publications.