An Offering, by Sir Frank Dicksee (1853–1928). 1898. Oil on canvas. 42 7/8 x 55 3/4 inches (109 x 141.5 cm). Private collection, image ©1991 Christie's Images Limited. Right click disabled; not to be reproduced.
An Offering was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1898, no. 277. The composition features a beautiful auburn-haired young woman dressed in a sumptuous Renaissance-style white brocade dress and with a triple-stranded pearl necklace hung around her neck with a jewelled brooch. She is reclining in a chair with half-closed eyes and carries an ostrich-feather red fan in her left hand. A handsome dark-haired young man, also in Renaissance costume and with an expensive gold chain around his neck, gazes lovingly at the lady and holds up a silver statuette of a kneeling and bound submissive cupid, which he is about to offer to the lady. Once again the work has been influenced by Venetian High Renaissance painting. Simon Toll has identified the female model as Rachel Lee, who had previously modelled for Dicksee's Meditation of 1897 and Dawn, also of 1897 (110).) Toll named the male figure as the Italian model Antonio Corsi, although not all experts agree on this identification.
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
The critic of The Art Journal praised the technique and the decorative qualities of the picture:
Mr. Frank Dicksee has not painted this year a picture of the class of The Confession, which was just enigmatical enough in meaning to draw public attention to it on that account, rather than by its really fine merits of technique. Nor have the higher flights of imagination tempted him again, as in last year's Dawn. He has had recourse to a subject which continues the series of richly decorative paintings, demanding all the cleverness and sureness of limning luxurious accessories found in the work of the Venetians. A swarthy lover seeks to further his suit by the offer to his haughty love of a silver Cupid, bound and captive, as emblem of his passion. This is a quite sufficient motive for the composition, An Offering, and Mr. Dicksee has painted the chief figure with considerable power. The richly adorned white robe sends up the warm flesh tones. The pose of the figure is admirable, and the picture wins a success equal to that of The Mirror in the 1896 Academy; a picture which was eulogized by the foreign critics as typifying the force of technique, which is the possession of the leaders of the British School. [166-68]
F.G. Stephens in The Athenaeum merely commented: "There is much that is pretty about Mr. F. Dicksee's An Offering (277), a silver Cupid proffered to a damsel by her lover" (572). The reviewer of The Magazine of Art found the piece extremely decorative in its line and colour: "A decorator, too, with a largeness of style, which is extremely welcome, is Mr. Frank Dicksee; it is true that there is no real interest of subject in this picture of An Offering, but the painter revels in suave harmony of line, in which there is not lacking the sense of style to which we have alluded, and in the rendering of rich materials and opulent colour. The artist has not this year touched the height to which he has before attained, but it is given to few to march triumphantly through their whole career without ever pausing to take breath. On récule pour mieux sauter [one takes a step back to take a bigger leap forward]" (467-68). E. R. Dibdin in The Art Annual described the picture as "one of the most entirely charming of the artist's subjects, in which beauty of design, colour and detail is the sole pictorial aim" (16).
Bibliography
Dibdin, E. Rimbault. Frank Dicksee, R.A. - His Life and Work, special issue of The Art Annual, 1905.
Fine Victorian Pictures. London: Christie's (25 October 1991): lot 44, 78-79.
Important British Art. London: Christie's (14 June 2000).
"The Royal Academy, 1898." The Art Journal New Series XXXVII (1898): 161-84.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition – II." The Magazine of Art XXI (1898): 463-69.
Stephens, Frederic George. "The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 3679 (30 April 1898): 571-74.
Toll, Simon. Frank Dicksee 1853-1928, His Art and Life. Woodbridge: ACC Art Books, 2016, cat. no. FD.1898.1, 110-12 & 233.
Created 6 July 2026