Fair Rosamond Alone in Her Bower.

William Bell Scott

1864

Oil on canvas

26½ x 20 inches (68 x 51.4 cm).

Collection of Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, accession no. 3387.

This work was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1854 after it had previously been rejected by the Royal Academy in 1853. Rosamund de Clifford, often called “The Fair Rosamund”, was the mistress of Henry II. According to legend, Henry kept her in secret bower in Woodstock only reachable by following a scarlet thread. Despite this Queen Eleanor supposedly found her and is said to have either stabbed her to death while she bathed or forced her to drink from a poison cup. This subject was popular with artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle including paintings by D. G. Rossetti, Arthur Hughes, Frederick Sandys, Edward Burne-Jones, Evelyn De Morgan, and J. W. Waterhouse.

This is one of Scott’s works most influenced by the P.R.B. with its medieval subject, bright colours, and the meticulous “truth to nature” handling of the background. This work abounds in the symbolic references so loved by the Pre-Raphaelites. Rosamond’s lute alludes to love, the hour glass signifies her time is growing short, the broken branch and the dove being chased by a falcon reflect the violence that is to come to her, white the spindle and thread is suggestive of her entrapment in the bower. — Dennis T. Lanigan