All About Mnemosyne by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Title of Artwork: “Mnemosyne”

Artwork by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Year Created 1875-1881

Summary of Mnemosyne

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Mnemosyne, also known as the Lamp of Memory and Ricordanza, is an oil painting that was completed in 1881. Frederick Richards Leyland, who owned the painting in 1881, hung it alongside five other Rossetti “stunners.” in his drawing room. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founder Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Astarte Syriaca in 1877, which features Morris in an almost identical pose.

All About Mnemosyne

To begin with, Jane Morris sat for Rossetti’s Mnemosyne oil study during the winters of 1875–1876, during which time the artist worked on developing it into the Greek personification of memory. It was on 29 April 1876 that Rossetti sent his mother a letter about the two paintings.

Rossetti was thinking about framing the painting and selling it to Clarence Fry a month later, when he came up with the idea. Leyland agreed to pay 300 pounds for Rossetti’s painting in July 1876, but he was concerned that it was too large for his drawing room and refused to accept it. The painting was finished in 1879 and delivered to Leyland in 1881 after Rossetti made adjustments to the frame. It was Rossetti’s final canvas before his death.

On the picture’s frame, it is written:

The painting was purchased by Frederick Richards Leyland in 1881 from Rossetti. Five other Rossetti paintings hung in Leyland’s drawing room, which Leyland referred to as “stunners.” William Connal McLean bought the painting at Leyland’s estate sale, which was held on May 28th, 1892, at Christie’s. The painting changed hands twice more in 1908, at gallery sales in New York City. A large collection of Pre-Raphaelite art outside the United Kingdom was acquired by the estate of Samuel Bancroft in 1916. For more than 80 years, the Bancroft family’s extensive art collection was donated to the Delaware Art Museum.

It was shown in three cities: London in 1883, Glasgow in 1893, and a fourth time, this time in London, 100 years later. Exhibitions of the work took place in New Haven, Connecticut (1976), and Richmond, Virginia (1978). (1982)

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.

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