Beschreibung:

Alice Boyd December 20, 1862, pencil on paper, signed DGR and dated 20 Decr. 1862 to lower left, sheet size 254 x 178 mm (10 x 7 ins), framed and glazed, with remains of label for the Rossetti exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, 1973, and photocopy of the catalogue raisonn� entry for this work from Virginia Surtees, Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to verso Provenance: Alice Boyd Penkill Castle; Evelyn M. Courtney-Boyd; purchased 1967 by M. Clayton-Stamm; thence by descent to the present owner. Exhibited: Royal Academy of Arts, Dante Gabriel Rossetti painter and poet, 13 January to 11 March 1973, 243. References:Virginia Surtees, Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti 268. Maria Teresa Benedetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1998) 237. Executed on the 20th December 1862 at the home of William Bell Scott in Newcastle upon Tyne, where Rossetti was staying for the Christmas holiday, following the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal on 11th February that year. Already married to Letitia Norquoy, Scott met Alice Boyd (1824-1897) in 1859 and quickly formed a close attachment to the unconventional and unmarried laird of Penkill Castle in Ayrshire. From that time, Scott, his wife, and Alice Boyd together divided their time between extended summer and Christmas stays in Scotland with Alice, and at the Scott's London home in Cheyne Walk, (Rossetti also moved to Cheyne Walk in October 1862). Alice Boyd and William Bell Scott invited members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle to Penkill, including Dante Gabriel and William Michael Rossetti as well as their sister Christina, and Arthur Hughes It was during his long stays there in 1868 and 1869 that Rossetti prepared for publication the 1870 edition of his poems. The present work is Rossetti's only known drawing of Miss Boyd. (1)