Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rossetti Oil painting: 'The Day Dream' in The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Day Dream painted in 1880 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter, artist and poet. The sitter for this painting was Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris, who often posed for Rossetti. At the time this was painted Rossetti was involved in an illicit love affair with Jane. He shows her sitting in the branches of a sycamore tree and holding a sprig of honeysuckle. This sweet-smelling climbing plant symbolized the bonds of love for the Victorians, and Rossetti may have included it here as a subtle reference to the relationship between artist and model. Rossetti was also a poet, and the title relates to his poem of the same name which ends:
She dreams; till now on her forgotten book  
Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand.
 This painting is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Content in a Cottage

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