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Pre-Raphaelite??

Maria Magenta

master brummie
This soulful creature turned up in a large collection of old photos. I think she's waiting to be painted by D.G. Rossetti!

Any ideas on what the date might be?
PRBW.jpg
 
What is it that makes think she is waiting to be painted and why DG Rossetti ?

Certainly a pretty girl and her dress is informal. Is this background real or a studio. I would say real because reflected in the mirror is fancy plasterwork and wall paper.
Would the painting be a commission by devoted parents or one of Rossetti's own making ? Victorian models were often looked on as "Low Women" unless a sitter in a properly commissioned painting.. The Pre Raphaelites like most artist groups had their own lifestyle rules.

The lady may even be part of the Pre-Raphelite group of Artists. There were many female painters,writers, poets and sculptors amongst them.

A charming and intriguing photo. Thank you Maria for sharing it with us. It may keep me occupied for hours on the web........cheers .....arkrite.
 
I agree, she does have a Pre-Raphaelite model look about her, but the clothes, I would hazard a guess and say the above the ankle dress, scooped neckline and elbow length sleeves must date from about 1915 onwards. On the other hand, she may have been posing for an artist though which makes a difference to dating her outfit, but I think he/she might have chosen a different background to a fireplace (my Gran's looked just like that in her little back to back house in Ladywood). We can read a lot into such pictures, can't we?
 
Sorry, I was joking about Rossetti, etc. - blame too much time spent in the Art Gallery and my eccentric sense of humour!! She does have, or is trying for, a soulful expression, though.

I agree the dress (which I'm sure she ran up herself) looks more like one from during the First World War. And I do think it's a 'real' setting.
 
I also notice the photographer / printer has chopped off the lady's feet. Not so professional I am afraid. Certainly dresses became more simple during WW1. I once saw a studio shot of my Grandma and Great Aunt taken in their teens. They were absolute stunners in their day.It was taken just before WW and I remember the dresses being a lot more fussy.
So I take it I can stop looking for pictures of Rossetti's many models and girlfriends ?
 
I also notice the photographer / printer has chopped off the lady's feet. Not so professional I am afraid. Certainly dresses became more simple during WW1. I once saw a studio shot of my Grandma and Great Aunt taken in their teens. They were absolute stunners in their day.It was taken just before WW and I remember the dresses being a lot more fussy.
So I take it I can stop looking for pictures of Rossetti's many models and girlfriends ?

I think so!! And weren't there too many to count?
Maria
 
Yes, the missing feet are a bit strange, and the shoes would have helped with dating. My husband thinks she looks sulky.

Rossetti was obsessed with exotic animals like wombats, I read somewhere!
 
... Rossetti was obsessed with exotic animals like wombats, I read somewhere! ...

Maria, I couldn't let the opportunity pass (the wombat is a close relative of mine ;)). Below is Rossetti's drawing "Death of a Wombat" (1869). For those (like me) who have trouble with his handwriting, the little poem (which is actually a parody of another poem) reads:
Death of a Wombat.

I never reared a young Wombat
To glad me with his pin-hole eye,
But when he most was sweet and fat
And tail-less, he was sure to die!​
 
This was the verse, it was a parody of Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh (1817)

‘I never nurs'd a dear gazelle
To glad me with its soft black eye,
But when it came to know me well
And love me, it was sure to die!'

The unfortunate marsupial was actually stuffed and placed in Rossetti's entrance hall.
 
The poor thing!!!

I suppose having a stuffed wombat in your hall is no more peculiar than many other things that people do, but it does strike me as very eccentric. (My mother's verdict on Rossetti: 'a bright spark' - not a compliment).
 
Dante Rossetti wanted a Yetti
In His entrance hall
But stuck an Eora
Right by his doora

Vombatus ursinus and all :)
 
I know he did pen the disturbing :

Oh! How the family affections combat
Within this heart; and each hour flings a bomb at
My burning soul; neither from owl nor from bat
Can peace be gained, until I clasp my wombat!
 
Nice one, beamish!

For those who are interested in Dante Gabriel Rossetti the wombat fancier (as I am ... now! ;)), here is a scholarly article on the subject: "Rossetti's Wombat: A Pre-Raphaelite Obsession in Victorian England" by Angus Trumble (Senior Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art). Trumble's more recent works include A Brief History of the Smile (2004) and The Finger: A Handbook (2010). He's an Aussie export.
 
Dante Gabriel Rossetti the wombat fancier...I'll never be able to think of him in any other way now!

Very interesting article as well.
 
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