Woman on a Bed and Figure of Death (Faust)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1846
Materials
Ink on paper
Measurements
240 x 235 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287110
Summary
Pen and ink drawing over pencil on paper, Woman on a Bed and Figure of Death (Faust) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), 1846. A woman reclines on a bed, legs drawn up. Her right hand is raised to her head to screen her eyes from figure of death who, with uplifted arms, leans over the man lying with his head in her lap with left arm raised to ward off death's head. A figure with wings and head of Mephistopheles appears in the background, also another female figure. Glazed in plain oak frame, cream card mount.
Provenance
Given by the artist to Alexander Munro (Inverness 1825 – Cannes 1871); by descent to his daughter-in-law Mrs J.A.R. Munro; by descent to Mrs Katherine Macdonald, by whom placed on permanent loan to Wightwick Manor 1995; accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Wightwick Manor, 2017.
Marks and inscriptions
RA exhibition label pasted on backboard.
Makers and roles
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), artist
References
Surtees 1971 Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882). A Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, no. 18 Jacobi and Finch 2023: Carol Jacobi and James Finch (eds.), The Rosettis, exh.cat. Tate Britain, London and Delaware Art Museum, 2023, no. 37, p. 36.