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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.200
People
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, British (London, England 1828 - 1882 Birchington-on-Sea, England)
Title
La Donna della Finestra
Other Titles
Alternate Title: The Lady of Pity
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1879
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230158

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
100.7 x 74 cm (39 5/8 x 29 1/8 in.)
framed: 137.2 x 111.1 x 9 cm (54 x 43 3/4 x 3 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: D.G. Rossetti. 1879
  • exhibition label: back of canvas: Southport Centenary Exhibition, 1892, Lent by W. R. Moss, Burnthwaite, Heaton, near Bolton
  • label: back of canvas, printed and handwritten: [handwritten in black ink:] La Donna della Finestra / (from Dante's Vita Nuova) / [printed:] painted in oil / by / Dante Gabriel Rossetti / The copyright of this picture is the exclusive property of / the Artist
  • exhibition label: [no. 91, lent by Moss]
  • exhibition label: [lent by Moss]
  • label: Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, Liverpool and Manchester
  • exhibition label: [lent by Moss]
  • inscription: lower edge of back, blue pencil: Product of England.
  • inscription: u.r., under surface of paint: Frame to cover this.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, sold; to Frederick Standridge Ellis, London, 1879. [Christie, Manson, & Woods, London, May 16, 1885, lot 91 (“Property of a Gentleman”)]; sold; to C.(?) Flower. W.R. Moss, Bolton, Lancashire, England, to; his wife Mrs. W. R. Moss, Bolton, Lancashire, England; to Lieutenant Colonel W. E. Moss, Sonning-on-Thames, England, sold [Sotheby’s, London, 1937, lot 39][1]. [Scott & Fowles, New York] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

[1] Probably "Catalogue of the very well-known and valuable library, the property of Lt.-Col. W.G. Moss of the Manor House, Sonning-on-Thames, Berks.," March 2-9, 1937

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number
Surtees 255

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.200
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • William Sharp, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Macmillan and Co. (London, England, 1882), pp. 116, 256-259, 263; chronology, no. 298
  • Catalogue of Water-Colour Drawings and Modern Pictures..., auct. cat., Christie, Manson and Woods, Ltd. (London, May 16, 1885), lot 91
  • William M. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer, Cassell & Company, Ltd. (London, New York, 1889), pp. 107-109
  • Frederic George Stephens, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Seeley (London, England, 1894), pp. 74-75
  • Oliver G. Destrée, Les Pré-Raphaélites: Notes sur l'Art Decoratif (Brussels, Belgium, 1894), p. 90; chronology, no. 375
  • A. G. Temple, The Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign (London, England, 1897), p. 120
  • Henry Currie Marillier, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life, George Bell & Sons (London, 1899), p. 197, no. 289, repr. opposite p. 196
  • Percy H. Bate, English Pre-Raphaelite Painters (London, England, 1899), repr. facing p. 46
  • Elisabeth Luther Cary, The Rossettis: Dante Gabriel and Christina, G. P. Putnam's Sons (London, England, 1900), p. 104; no. 188 in chronology
  • Ford Madox Hueffer, Rossetti: a critical essay on his art, Duckworth & Co. (London, England, 1902), p. 150
  • Henry Currie Marillier, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, an illustrated memorial of his art and life, George Bell and Sons, Ltd. (London, England, 1904), p. 139; repr. before p. 139 (cropped); no. 374 in chronology
  • Kirk Bryan, Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (London, England, 1904), vol. 4, no. 283-288
  • Jarno Jessen, Rossetti, Velhagen und Klassing (Bielefeld and Leipzig, Germany, 1905), p. 92; fig. 69
  • Henry Currie Marillier, Rossetti, George Bell and Sons, Ltd. (London, England, 1906), p. 94
  • Richard Muther, The History of Modern Painting, J. M. Dent & Co./E. P. Dutton & Co. (London, England and New York, NY, 1907), p. 166
  • Ernest Radford, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, G. Newnes Ltd. (London, England, 1908), pl. 53
  • Gabriel Mourey, D. -G. Rossetti et les Preraphaelites anglais, H. Laurens (Paris, France, 1909), p. 37
  • Chefs-d'oeuvre de D. G. Rossetti, A. Perche (Paris, France, 1912), repr. in b/w p. 60
  • Paget Toynbee, Chronological List with Notes of Paintings and Drawings from Dante by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Torino, 1912), no. 86
  • Masterpieces of D. G. Rossetti, Gowans & Gray, Ltd. (London, England, 1923), repr. in b/w p. 60
  • Evelyn Waugh, Rossetti, His Life and Works (London, England, 1928), pp. 211-212
  • Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), no. 85, p. 93 ff
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Letters, ed. Oswald Doughty and John Robert Wahl, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, 1965-1967), pp. 1643-1644
  • Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1971), no. 255, repr. as pl. 383
  • Marina Henderson, D. G. Rossetti, Academy Editions/St. Martin's Press (London, England and New York, NY, 1973), p. 93, text p. 92-93
  • John Bryson and Janet Camp Troxell, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris, Their Correspondence, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1976), repr. in b/w p. 101, no. 63; pp. xvi-xvii, 9 n. 13, 99, 100 n. 1, 103, 105, 107 n. 2, 117, 149, 175 n. 1; repr. in b/w as no. 63, p. 101
  • Corrado Gizzi, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, exh. cat., Mazzotta (Milan, 1984), pp. 201-202, repr.
  • Maria Teresa Benedetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Casa Editrice G. C. Sansoni (Florence, Italy, 1984), no. 518, repr. p. 335
  • Alicia Craig Faxon, "Dante Gabriel Rossetti and His Models", The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies (May 1985), vol. V, no. 2, pp. 54-67, repr. in b/w fig. 10
  • Theresa Byington, "A Technical Study of Five Oil Paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1987), Unpublished, passim
  • Susan P. Casteras, “Rossetti's Embowered Females in Art, or Love Enthroned and The Lamp's Shrine.”, Nineteenth Century Studies (1988), vol. II, repr. in b/w fig. 16, p. 48; text p. 47, 49
  • "Read On", The Connoisseur (December 1989), repr. in color, p. 34
  • Alicia Craig Faxon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1989), p. 197; repr. in color p. 26 as fig. 10, detail p. 27 as fig. 11
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 81, color plate; pp. 128, 158, repr. b/w cat. no. 69
  • Tanita Hiroyuki, ed., Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan, 1992), repr. in color p. 19
  • Dominique Jarrassé, Les Préraphaélites, Herscher (Paris, France, 1995), p. 56, repr. in color p. 57
  • Stephen Wildman, Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England, exh. cat., Art Services International (Alexandria, VA, 1995), pp. 312-314
  • Susan P. Casteras, "Victorian Vignettes: Daniel Maclise's Scottish Lovers and Marie Spartali Stillman's 'La Pensierosa'", Bulletin/Biennial Report 1995-97, Elvehjem Museum of Art, Elvehjem Museum of Art (Madison, Wisconsin, 1998), p. 38, fig. 8, b&w repro.
  • Maria Teresa Benedetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Charta (Milan, 1998), no. 518, pl. 19, repr. p. 35
  • Mary Warner Blanchard, Oscar Wilde's America: Counterculture in the Gilded Age, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1998), repr. in b/w fig. 120, p. 162
  • Jan Marsh, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Painter and Poet (London, 1999), pp. 503, 505, 510
  • Vanessa Muller, How Botticellian! (Munster, 2000), pp. 84-85, 91-94; repr. in color as Abb. 9
  • Debra N. Mancoff, Jane Morris: The Pre-Raphaelite Model of Beauty, Pomegranate (San Francisco, CA, 2000), pp. 77-78, repr. in color as plate 35
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), pp. 196-197, cat. #57, color repr.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 190, pp. 423-424, repr. in color
  • Julian Treuherz and Elizabeth Prettejohn, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, exh. cat., Thames & Hudson (London, 2003), p. 92; under no. 144, repr. in color as fig. 121
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 190, pp. 436-437, repr. in color
  • Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters: The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts (London, 2003), p. 306
  • Gail S. Weinberg, "D. G. Rossetti's Ownership of Botticelli's 'Smeralda Brandini'", The Burlington Magazine (January 2004), vol. CXLVI, no. 1210, pp. 20-26, p. 26; fig. 20
  • Richard Wendorf, After Sir Joshua: Essays on British Art and Cultural History, Yale University Press (New Haven and London, 2005), pp. 85-86, repr. in color as fig. 23
  • Laurence Roussillon-Constanty, Meduse Au Miroir: Esthetique Romantique de Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ELLUG, Universite Stendhal (Grenoble, France, 2008), pp. 145, 148
  • Martina John, Rossettis Dante: Bild-Text-Relationen und Literaturrezeption bei Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Verlag Ludwig (Kiel, 2015), pp. 316-332, pl. 20
  • Stefan Weppelmann and Ruben Rebmann, ed., The Botticelli Renaissance, exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie Berlin (Berlin, 2015), pp. 41, 78, 221, repr. p. 77 as fig. 37
  • Mark Evans and Stefan Weppelmann, Botticelli Reimagined, exh. cat., V & A Publishing (London, 2016), pp. 41, 78, 221, repr. p. 77 as fig. 37
  • Elizabeth Prettejohn, Modern Painters, Old Masters: The Art of Imitation from the Pre-Raphaelites to the First World War, Yale University Press (New Haven, 2017), p. 20, fig. 13
  • Melissa Buron, Truth & Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, 2018), p. 129, fig. 41

Exhibition History

  • Winter Exhibition: Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Including a Special Selection from the Works of John Linnell and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 01/01/1883 - 02/28/1883
  • Southport Centenary Exhibition, Municipal Gardens, Southport, 01/01/1892 - 12/31/1892
  • Pictures Ancient and Modern by Artists of the British and Continental Schools, including a Special Selection from the Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, New Gallery, London, 01/01/1897 - 12/31/1898
  • Art and Industrial Exhibition, Wolverhampton, 01/01/1902 - 12/31/1902
  • Loan Exhibition of Works by Ford Madox Brown and the Pre-Raphaelites, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, 09/14/1911 - 11/30/1911
  • Paintings and Drawings of the Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/1946 - 06/01/1946
  • Pre-Raphaelite and Early French Symbolist Art in the Fogg Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/16/1973 - 02/25/1973
  • The Pre-Raphaelites: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/04/1980 - 07/15/1980
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Centennial Exhibition from the Harvard Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 07/12/1982 - 09/11/1982
  • Paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Technical Study, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/24/1987 - 09/18/1987
  • Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu