Portrait of May Morris

"Portrait of May Morris" - a drawing of the English artist -Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti , created in 1872 .

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Portrait of May Morris . 1872

May morris

Paper allegedly pastel

private meeting

The picture shows May Morris , the youngest daughter of designer and artist William Morris and his wife and model and lover Rossetti Jane Morris . At the time of writing, May was 10 years old. The girl is depicted in a flowing draped dress, in her right hand she holds a flower of pansies . The artist liked to spend time with May and her older sister Jenny, who filled up the void in his life associated with the absence of his own children ^[1] . Already in childhood May, he discerned in her the talent of the artist. He also believed that she adopted the beauty of her mother ^[1] . Rossetti created several portraits of May, in contrast to the works where her mother poses, portraits with May were distinguished by tenderness and less manners ^[1] . In the works of Rossetti May became the embodiment of purity and innocence, while other models were often portrayed by him as fatal women , the embodiment of sensuality and passion ^[1] .

The portrait is mentioned by Rossetti in a letter to his brother William Michael . The artist writes that this is “a very accurate image of May Morris, which will draw 100 guineas” ^[2] . Rossetti created a portrait of May during a break while working on another attempt to write Proserpine , when Jane Morris caught a cold and could not pose for some time ^[2] .

At the moment, the picture is in an unknown private collection ^[3] .