Beauty and the Bird
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
25 Jun 1858
Materials
Pen and indian ink on paper
Measurements
340 x 250 mm
Place of origin
London
Collection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1290805
Caption
Rossetti admired this tall golden-haired stunner performing at a London theatre a few years before he was to meet her at his home at Chatham Place. He gave this drawing to Georgina Treherne (Mrs Wheldon), a professional singer, who has written on it that he made it at Little Holland House, the home of the Prinseps, where Burne-Jones also resided. Miss Ruth Herbert was the stage name of Louisa Crabbe (née Maynard) who had married a respectable stockbroker but at the time of this pen and ink study had separated from him. She served as the model for many of Rossetti’s works, notably Mary Magdalen at the Door of Simon the Pharisee (Fitzwilliam Museum) and inspired the other Pre-Raphaelites. He has written ‘in memoriam 25 June 1858’ on the sketch which implies he may have done it from memory on that occasion rather than from life.
Summary
Pen and indian ink drawing on paper, Beauty and the Bird by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), signed and dated: In Memoriam 25 June 1858. A portrait, to right, of the actress, Miss Ruth Herbert (c.1830 - c.1921), wearing a dress with a lace collar and ruffled cuffs; with a brooch in the centre of the collar; a bonnet trimmed with chenille bobbles; pearl earrings; kid gloves fastened at the wrist. Her left hand is reaching up to a birdcage with a bullfinch inside. Her face is very near to the bars of the cage and she has the tip of her tongue showing between her lips; the bird is touching its beak to her tongue, said to be eating off it. Framed in a plain wooden glazed frame dating to around 1973 in preparation for an exhibition at the Royal Academy. A note written across the lower right corner by Miss Georgina Treherne (Mrs Weldon), to whom Rossetti gave the sketch to, reads 'This is a sketch drawn at Little Holland Hse by Rossetti-Reminiscence of Miss Herbert' [and scratched out by a knife] 'an actress all the Pre-Raffaelites were in love with. G. Weldon'. Louisa Ruth Maynard had the stage name of Ruth Herbert, as she was better known by in the Pre-Raphaelite circles. Born c.1830; in 1855 she married Edward Crabbe, they had one son together before separating in 1857. Miss Herbert made her London stage debut at the Lyceum in 1847. ... [by] 1857, having ... established herself as one of the rising stars of the theatre, playing both female and travesti roles. By 1858 she had several 'admirers', including John Rochfort, who would become her second partner. ... By 1868-9 Louisa had virtually given up performing. During the previous ten years she had bourne a second son (1859) and a daughter (1861) and continued to star in comedies and melodramas. ... At the end of 1864, when she became manager of the St James Theatre, she was described in the press as a 'graceful and sympathetic person of much beauty with exquisite golden hair and almost devotional features who supplied many of the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren with angelic faces for their canvases'. (Adapted from the author's published article in The Journal of William Morris Studies, Jan Marsh, 'The author of the Earthly Paradise by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A newly discovered drawing.', pp.7-10, Winter 2011)
Provenance
Given to the National Trust by Mrs Virginia Surtees, great-granddaughter of the sitter, in memory of Lady Rosalie Mander, March 2014.
Makers and roles
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London 1828 - Birchington 1882), artist
References
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Painter and Poet, Royal Academy, London and Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1973 Surtees 1973 Virginia Surtees, 'Beauty and the Bird: a new Rossetti Drawing' The Burlington Magazine, vol.115, February 1973, pp.84-87 Marsh 2011 Jan Marsh, 'The author of the Earthly Paradise by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A newly discovered drawing.' in The Journal of William Morris Studies, Winter 2011 , pp.7-10