DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
(1828 - 1882)
Woman brushing her Hair
The monogram and date are inscribed at lower left.
Provenance
John Bibby
Christie's June 3, 1899 (lot 37)
Major C.S. Goldman
By descent to John Monck, his son
Christie's sale Nov. 16, 1965 (lot 18)
Private Collection, UK
Exhibited
Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1973, no.314
Literature
Benedetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 249-250.
Carrington, Pictures and Poems.
Marillier DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 132.
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 1, 100 (no. 174).
Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 2, plate 252.
Surtees, Diaries of George Price Boyce, 46.
The Age of Rossetti, Burne–Jones, and Watts [Tate 1997], 138 (no. 33).
Treuherz, Prettejohn and Becker, DGR, 188 (no. 102).
This is one of a group of toilette scenes by Rossetti dating to the 1860s and demonstrating the influence of Titian's 'Woman with a Mirror'. Beginning in 1859 with 'Bocca Baciata' (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Rossetti began to develop a series of paintings (in watercolour as well as oil) of half-length female figures, often with little or no specific subject. The model for this watercolour was Fanny Cornforth. A prepartatory drawing of this subject can be found in Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
