DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

(1828-1882)

Paolo and Francesca

1862

watercolour on paper

31.7 x 60.3 cm

inscribed: monogram, 1862

P.548

O lasso, in central panel; inscribed along the foot of the first compartment, Quanti dolci pensier Quanto disio, inscribed along the foot of the second compartment, Meno costor al doloroso passo!.

Originally on the back of the picture Rossetti had transcribed two verses from the Inferno and added ' Francesca da Rimini (watercolour) D.G. Rossetti Sept.1862'

This illustrates the story related by Dante in Canto V of his Inferno in which Francesca with her lover and brother‑in‑law, Paola Malatesta, are murdered by her husband, Sigismondo Malatesta. The left-hand compartment shows the lovers kissing. In the central panel Dante and Virgil stand crowned with laurel and bay-leaf, looking pityingly at the right-hand panel where the lovers, locked in each others arms, float through the flames of Hell, forever united.

Rossetti had this subject in mind from c.1849: a sheet of four sketches on paper show three groups of seated lovers with an open book on their knees whilst the fourth group are standing. The earliest triptych version was acquired by RUSKIN and is now in the Tate Gallery (N03056). This, the slightly enlarged second version was painted for the collector James Leathart; it is reputed to have been one of his favouite paintings, with Leathart likening its colour to ‘jewels’. A third version is in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (No.3266/4).

EJ/JM

PROVENANCE:Commissioned by James Leathart; by descent to his son, T.H. Leathart; Sir Edmund Davies, his sale Christie's 7 July 1939, no.88; bought by Kerrison Preston, who later gave it to Gordon Bottomley, who willed back to Preston, his sale Sotheby's, 15 March 1967, no.34; purchased Thos. Agnew & Son Ltd on behalf of Gallery.

EXHIBITIONS: Winter Exhibition, London, R.A., 1883, no.291; Winter Exhibtion, London, R.A., 1901, no.159; London, Goupil Gallery, 1896, no.11; Franco‑British Exhibition, Paris, 1908, no.429; The Pre‑Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848 ‑ 62), Birmingham, Birmingham City Museum & Art Gallery, 1947, no.123; Paintings and Drawings by the Pre‑Raphaelites and their Followers, Bournemouth, Russell‑Cotes Art Gallery, 1951, no.59; The Leathart Collection, Newcastle upon Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, 1968, no.62; Pre‑Raphaelites ‑ Patrons and Painters in the North East, Newcastle upon Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, 1989‑90, no.93; Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 - 1882 , Japan, Tokyo, Nagoya and Kurume, 1990-91, no.20.

REFERENCES: The Athenaeum, Sept. 1873, p.342; H.C. Marillier, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life, 1899, pp.66, 125-6, 244, no.136; W.M. Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family Letters, with a Memoir, Cassell and Co,1899, vol.i, p.188; Art Journal May 1896, p.132; R.Ironside and J. Gere, Pre-Raphaelite Painters, 1948, p.32; K. Preston (ed.), Letters from Graham Robertson, 1953, pp.423-6; O. Doughty and J.R. Wahl, Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1965 & 1967, p.450; V. Surtees, Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 – 1882; The Paintings and Drawings A Catalogue Raisonné, 1971, Vol. 1 (text), p.38, no.75. R1, Vol.11, (plates), no.88; J. Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Women, 1987, p.58, illus. no.46 (detail).

When I made answer, I began: “Alas!

How many sweet thoughts and how much desire

Led these two onward to the dolorous pass!”

Then turned to them, as who would fain inquire,

And said: “Francesca, these thine agonies

Wring tears for pity and grief which they inspire:

But tell me, in the season of sweet sighs,

When and what way did love instruct you so

That he in your vague longings made you wise ?”

Then she said to me: “There is no greater woe

Than the remembrance of past happy days

In misery: and this thy guide doth know.

But if the first beginnings to retrace

Of our said love, may yield thee solace here,

So will I be as one that weeps and says:

'One day we read, for pastime and sweet cheer

Of Lancelot how he found Love tyrannous:

We were alone and without any fear.

Our eyes were drawn together reading thus

Full oft, and still our cheeks would pale and glow;

But one sole point it was that conquered us.

For when we read of that great lover, how

He kissed the smile which he had longed to win-

Then he whom nought can sever from me now

For ever, kissed my mouth, all quivering.

A pander was the book and he that writ:

Upon that day we read no more therein'.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.

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