Object details
Object number
P1w8
Creator(s)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(London, 1828 - 1882, Birchington, England)
Title
Love's Greeting
Date
about 1861
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
57 x 61 cm (22 7/16 x 24 in.)
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings
Inscribed (on the scroll): Madonna, Dio vi fece, Dio vi Guardi, Madonna, Dio v'onori (along the top) / Dio v'innalzi, Madonna Dio vi dia le voglie vostre (along the bottom) (My Lady, God made thee, God keep thee, My Lady, God honor thee / God exalt thee, my lady, God grant thee thy wishes)
Inscribed (over the heads of the three figures, left to right): Amor / Amata / Amator (Love / Beloved / Lover)
Provenance
Possibly in the collection of the textile merchant Walter Dunlop, Bradford in 1864.
Collection of the Scottish merchant, politician, and art patron William Graham (1817-1885), Glasgow.
Purchased by the English collector Frederick R. Leyland (1831-1892), Liverpool from the sale of the Graham collection at Christie, Manson & Woods, London for £86.20 on 3 April 1886, lot 101.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the sale of the Frederick R. Leyland collection at Christie, Manson & Woods, London for £189.50 on 28 May 1892, lot 60, through Benjamin Franklin Stevens (1833-1902), bibliographer, bookseller and library agent.
Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Bibliography
Christie, Manson & Woods. Catalogue of the Important Collection of Pictures in Oil and Drawings in Water Colours, Formed by that Well-Known Amateur William Graham, Esq... (2-10 April 1886), p. 16, lot 101.
William Michael Rossetti. Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer (London, 1889), p. 11. (called "Roman de la Rose," possibly refers to this painting or Roman de la Rose, 1864, now housed in the Tate Gallery, London, no. 4089)
Christie, Manson & Woods. Catalogue of the Very Valuable Collection of Ancient and Modern Pictures of Frederick Richards Leyland, Esq... (London, 28 May 1892), p. 14, lot 60.
William Roberts. Memorials of Christie's: A Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1896, vol. 2 (London, 1897), p. 189.
Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p. 6, no. 6.
H.C. Marillier. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life (London, 1899), p. 107, 241[?], no. 101. (the Gardner painting as either the "Love's Greeting," 1861, present location unknown noted on p. 107; or possibly the replica of no. 136, "Paolo and Francesca," about 1862, in the collection of Mrs. J.L. Gardner, Boston noted on p. 241)
H.C. Marillier. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life (London, 1901), p. 80, 154, no. 134. (as 1861)
H.C. Marillier. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of his Art and Life (London, 1904), p. 59, 71-72, 160, no. 134. (as 1861)
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 1.
Ernest Radford. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London, 1905), pp. xiv, 16, ill. (The Rose Garden of 1861, now housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession no. 58.50 as after the Gardner version)
John La Farge et al (eds.). Noteworthy Paintings in American Private Collections, vol. 1 (New York, 1907), pp. 4-8, 80-81, 85-87, ill. (as earlier than or contemporary to the MFA version)
Masterpieces of D.G. Rossetti (1828-1882): Sixty Reproductions of Photographs from the Original Oil-Paintings (Glasgow, 1912), p. 19, ill. (as 1861)
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 126.
Evelyn Waugh. Rossetti, His Life and Works (London, 1928), p. 100. (an "unimportant little design called 'Love's Greeting'")
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), pp. 302-03, ill. (as an elaboration of the MFA version)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 16. (as based on the MFA version)
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), pp. 55-56.
Robin Ironside et al. Pre-Raphaelite Painters (London, 1948), p. 32, n1. (as 1861)
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 8, no. 1 (6 Sep. 1964), p. 2.
Linda V. Hewitt. "Love's Greeting." Fenway Court (Aug. 1969), pp. 66-72, fig. 4. (as after 1861)
Virginia Surtees. The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1971), vol. 1, pp. 78-80, no. 126; vol. 2, pl. 195. (as about 1861, as an elaboration of the MFA version)
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 209-10, ill. (as an extension to the MFA version)
Helene E. Roberts. "Victorian Medievalism: Revival or Masquerade?" Browning Institute Studies: An Annual of Victorian Literary and Cultural History, vol. 8 (1980), pp. 37-43, fig. 16.
Ernest Fontana. "Rossetti's Representations of the Kiss." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Studies (1988), pp. 81-89. (as about 1861)
Jerome J. McGann (ed.). "Love's Greeting." The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rosseti: A Hypermedia Archive, accessed 2015. http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/9-1850.s126.raw.html (as probably late 1861, perhaps 1862)
Linda J. Docherty. "Translating Dante: Isabella Stewart Gardner's Museum as Paradiso." Religion and the Arts (2018), pp.199-200, fig. 2.
Gallery
Yellow Room
Rights and reproductions
The use of images, text, and all other media found on this website is limited. Please review Rights and Reproductions for details.
