DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
(1828 - 1882)
Woman brushing her Hair
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.
