Paolo and Francesca (from Dante's Inferno)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1849
Materials
Pencil on paper
Measurements
185 x 140 mm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287115
Summary
Pencil drawing on paper, Paolo and Francesca by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), 1849. A study for the left hand portion of a watercolour executed in 1855, now in Tate Britain, which illustrates the story of Paolo and Francesca who are mentioned in Dante's Inferno (Canto V, lines 123-133). Two lovers are shown in the act of embracing.
Provenance
Given by the artist to Alexander Munro (Inverness 1825 – Cannes 1871); by descent to his daughter-in-law Margaret Caroline Neaves, Mrs John Arthur Ruskin Munro in 1944; by descent to his grand-daughter Mrs Katherine MacDonald, by whom placed on permanent loan 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. 75C