The Girlhood of Mary Virgin
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin | |
---|---|
Artist | Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
Year | 1849 |
Medium | oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 83.2 cm × 65.4 cm (32.8 in × 25.7 in) |
Location | Tate Britain, London |
Website | Tate Britain - catalogue entry |
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin is an 1849 oil on canvas painting by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, measuring 83.2 by 65.4 cm and now in the collection of Tate Britain, to which it was bequeathed in 1937 by Agnes Jekyll.[1] It was his first completed oil painting and is signed "Dante Gabriele Rossetti P.R.B. 1849".[2] He first exhibited it at the 'Free Exhibition' at the Hyde Park Corner Gallery.[3]
History
Rossetti began the work in summer 1848, working hard and aiming to have it completed for exhibition in March 1849. In November 1848 he mentioned his choice of subject in a letter to his father's friend,
Rossetti made several preliminary studies in chalk and the Scottish poet and artist William Bell Scott saw the work in progress in Hunt's studio and remarked on young Rossetti's technique:
He was painting in oils with water-colour brushes, as thinly as in water-colour, on canvas which he had primed with white till the surface was a smooth as cardboard, and every tint remained transparent. I saw at once that he was not an orthodox boy, but acting purely from the aesthetic motive. The mixture of genius and dilettantism of both men shut me up for the moment, and whetted my curiosity.[4]
The models were sourced from close to home — Anne was portrayed by Rossetti's mother Frances, his sister Christina Rossetti modelled for Mary, and the family servant Williams for Joachim. The angel's face was originally based on the half-sister of Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), but in August 1849 Rossetti replaced her features with those of another girl, recommended to him by his fellow Pre-Raphaelite James Collinson (1825-1881).
Rossetti wrote two
It received a generally good reception and reviews at the Free Exhibition. It was bought for £80 by Louisa, marchioness of Bath, wife of
See also
References
- ^ Tate Britain - catalogue entry
- ^ "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin by Dante Gabriel Rossetti". www.thehistoryofart.org. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
- ^ a b "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin". www.rossettiarchive.org. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
- ^ Marsh, Jan (1996). The Pre-Raphaelites: Their Lives in Letters and Diaries. London: Collins & Brown., page 17
- ^ Catalogue of the Free Exhibition p.18
Bibliography
- Prettejohn, Elizabeth, The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, 2007, Tate Publishing, Millbank, London. ISBN 978-1854377265
- Donnelly, Brian, Sonnet-Image-Intertext: Reading Rossetti's the Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Found, article in Victorian Poetry, Vol. 48, No. 4