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Rossetti'sCourtship. Chatham Place, 1850-1860

Max Beerbohm

1922

Rossetti and His Circle, Plate 2

6 ½ x 4 ¼ inches

This plate depicting Dante Gabriel Rossetti gazing earnestly (and possibly sourly) at Lizzie Siddall, who faces in another direction, captures the importance in Rossetti's thought of the beloved as an object of contemplation and visual pleasure. A painting of Lizzie as Rossettian Fair Lady stands on the easel at the upper left, and poems written to her and other beloved, real and imagined, lie in a portfolio and scattered about the floor. The lack of any interaction between the couple provides the chief comment on their courtship

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[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]