St Cecilia
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
205 mm (H); 170 mm (W); 535 mm (H); 380 mm (W)
Order this imageCollection
Wightwick Manor, West Midlands
NT 1291773
Summary
Pencil drawing - An angel appearing to St Cecilia. Large cream card mount.
Full description
Siddal began working on sketches for St Cecilia in 1855. These drawings were created as sketches for an illustration to accompany a book of Tennyson's poetry being published by Moxon in 1857. This publication featured 54 woodcut illustrations, including 30 by Pre-Raphaelite artists, including Siddal's husband Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but not Siddal's. The subject is taken from Tennyson's poem 'The Palace of Art': 'Or in a clear-walled city on the sea,Near gilded organ pipes, her hairWound with white roses, slept St Cecily; An Angel looked at her.'This drawing is recto-verso with 1291774.
Provenance
Probably Charles Fairfax Murray; by descent to his son Arthur R. Murray; purchased Sotheby's 15 February 1961, part of lot 6 (an album of drawings and sketches mostly by Elizabeth Siddal); purchased by Sir Geoffrey Mander, c.£120-170 the lot; (Sir Geoffrey Mander later sold 6 of the pictures in the purchased lot to Jeremy Maas, including Siddal's Lady of Shalott); transferred to the National Trust on the death of Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander (1905 - 1988)
Marks and inscriptions
By Lizzie R (signed in pencil)
Makers and roles
Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Eleanor Siddal, Mrs Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Holborn 1829 – Chatham Place, London 1862), artist