Madonna and Child
Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Eleanor Siddal, Mrs Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Holborn 1829 – Chatham Place, London 1862)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
1860
Materials
Pencil on paper
Measurements
240 x 260 mm
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1287899
Summary
Small pencil drawing of interior of stable with the Virgin Mary kneeling before manger containing rather large baby Jesus. Light sketch of cattle to left. Gilt border, grey card mount; glazed narrow giltwood frame. Information from the Beyond Ophelia, 2018 Lizzie Siddal Exhibition: In a stable, the Virgin Mary kneels before Christ in a manger. The closeness of their heads and their shared eye contact emphasises the bond between mother and child. Christ's arms outstretched in the shape of the cross foreshadows his later sacrifice on the cross. One hand is outstretched to his mother whilst the other reaches out to the opening in the stable, and so to the world. Victorian art buyers preferred moral subjects and it may be that Siddal created religious art hoping that Ruskin would sell it. Early Pre-Raphaelite painting was preoccupied with religious piety and drawing the Holy Family in a naturalistic manner, such as Millais’ Christ in the House of His Parents (1850) and Rossetti’s Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849). A sequence of artworks depicting the life of Christ was a popular Victorian theme and Lizzie may have wanted to create a sequence of the life of the Virgin Mary. This composition of the Nativity seems to have been abandoned by Lizzie in favour of another stable scene, showing the Virgin Mary cradling Christ attended by an angel, which was worked up into a watercolour. Studies and sketches were created for an Annunciation, 2 Nativity scenes, a Madonna and Child, a Deposition and The Maries at the Sepulchre. Only 2 of these images were completed in watercolour: Virgin and Child and Angel and Madonna and Child- where an infant Christ stands on his mother’s knee. Purchased by Lady Mander for the National Trust from the Maas Gallery in January 1967- this may have been one of the drawings originally bought by Sir Geoffrey in 1961 which he then sold to Jeremy Maas.
Provenance
With J S Maas and Son,Clifford St London.
Marks and inscriptions
Typed J S Maas label on reverse.
Makers and roles
Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Eleanor Siddal, Mrs Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Holborn 1829 – Chatham Place, London 1862), artist