Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) The Salutation of Beatrice courtesty Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. (Click to enlarge).
The romance between Jane Morris, wife of artist and designer William Morris, and the pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a source of gossip in Victorian times. The couple took great care to protect their privacy. Each destroyed the correspondence with the other. Now a previously unknown portrait of Jane Morris by Rossetti from a private collection in Scotland associates Jane with Dante’s muse Beatrice Portinari. It will be offered at Christie’s Victorian & British Impressionist Art sale in London on May 31 and is estimated at £1-1.5 million.
William Morris was Rossetti’s business partner. Rossetti met and was attracted to Jane in 1857 when he was already engaged to Lizzie Siddall. Jane married Morris. Siddall suffered an overdose of laudanum in 1862, probably taking her own life. The relationship between Rossetti and Jane Morris was eventually re-kindled. Rossetti’s 1869 painting ‘The Salutation of Beatrice’ was unrecorded and unknown to scholars. This was the year when it is generally assumed their affair began. It lasted until about 1875. The painting is described by Peter Brown, Christie’s director of Victorian Pictures, as the most important work by Rossetti to appear at auction in 25 years.
The sale will also feature a rare depiction of Florence Nightingale studied from life by Jerry Barrett (1824-1906). The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari shows Florence Nightingale in the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, the scene of her heroic endeavours to improve the medical treatment of the British Army in the Crimea. It is estimated at £30,000-50,000. There is a larger version at The National Portrait Gallery in London. At the same sale A Winner at Epsom by Sir Alfred James Munnings is estimated at £500,000-800,000.
Jerry Barrett (1814-1906) The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the wounded in Scutari in 1856. (Click to enlarge).
Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (1878-1959) A Winner at Epsom. (Click to enlarge).