Venus Verticordia
1828-82
Titled l.c. Venus Verticordia and with the artist's sonnet u.r. Coloured chalks, unfixed (with note to that effect by artist on reverse of frame) on two joined sheets of paper. 30 1/2 ins by 24 1/2 ins.
Collection Details
William Graham, ?1872; his sale, 3 April 1886, lot 99: bt by Agnew for Alexander Henderson, later 1st Lord Faringdon.
Literature
H C Marillier, D G Rossetti, 1899, p.136, No.149; W Sharp, D G Rossetti, 1882, p.187; Letters of Graham Robertson, ed K Preston, 1953, pp.397–8; V Surtees, Paintings and Drawings of D G Rossetti, 1971, No.173B, p.249. Robert Wilkes, 'Painting practice: the preparatory drawings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood', Art UK, 7 January 2025.
Exhibition Details
BFAC, Rossetti, 1883, No.69.
Related Pictures
A version in oils, commissioned by J Mitchell of Bradford in 1863 or 1864, is now in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth. The head of Alexa Wilding was substituted for that of the cook (see below) in 1867. A related pencil drawing, c.1863-4, is in the collection of the Courtauld Institute.
Background
The title translates into 'Venus, Changer of the Heart' which derives from the Latin and refers to Venus' ability to turn women's hearts towards virtue.
The work was completed in 1869, although work had begun in 1863. According to Surtees, this is a finished study for the painting as DGR conceived it originally. The text of the sonnet was originally published in the 'Notes of the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868. In the oil painting DGR removed the inscribed poem from the finished piece. However, in a short piece for Art UK, Robert Wiles argues that the chalk drawing should be considered as a stand alone work of art, rather than a preparatory study for the oil painting.
H R Angeli (Rossetti, 1949, pp.91–2) quotes letters from Ruskin to Rossetti, written in 1865, criticising among other things the Flora (ie, the Venus Verticordia) that Rossetti had just begun. The estrangement between the two men developed at this period. Writing to Mr Rae about a replica that he had commissioned in 1864 (now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery), Rossetti rather unnecessarily observed: ‘I really do not think the large picture chargeable with anything like Ettyism, which I detest, but I am sure the little one has not a shadow of it.’ The model was a young cook whom Rossetti had picked up on the street. According to Hueffer (Rossetti, 1902, pp.66–7), the artist spent large sums on the honeysuckle and roses with which he adorned the background. The picture is inscribed with Rossetti’s sonnet beginning, ‘She had it in her hand to give it thee …’, which was published in 1865 with certain alterations.
The Trustees of the Faringdon Collection 25.
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