DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 1828-1882 ANIMA - THE SONNET signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: D.G.Rossetti pro matre fecit Apr: 27. 1880; titled u.l.: ANIMA pen and ink, contained in a volume of David Mains Treasury of English Sonnets inscribed by Frances Maria Lavinia Rossetti and her surviving children Christina, William Michael and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with a handwritten sonnet by Christina Rossetti 10 by 19cm., 5 by 8in. Given by the artist and his sister Christina to their mother Frances Maria Lavinia Polidori Rossetti on the occasion of her 80th birthday, 27 April 1880; Thence by descent to her son William Michael Rossetti, by whom bequeathed to his son Gabriel Arthur Rossetti in 1919 and thence to his son Harold Ford Rossetti Accompanying the book is a letter from the artist to his mother which reads: 27th April 1880, My dearest Mother, It was sweet indeed to me to receive this day, and written in so firm a hand, the reappearance of what was the first thing I learned to know in this world - my mothers love. I wish the little offering had been worthier of such a shrine. I liked Christinas sonnet extremely, - it is lovely in its heartfelt affection. I have no doubt that your discerning eyes plucked out the heart of the mystery in the little design. In it the soul is instituting the memorial to one dead deathless hour, - a memory easily effected by placing a winged hourglass in a rosebush, at the same time that she touches the fourteen-stringed harp of the sonnet hanging around her neck. On the rose-branches trailing over in the opposite corner is seen hanging the coin which is the second symbol used for the sonnet; its face bears the soul, expressed in the butterfly, - its converse the Serpent of Eternity enclosing the Alpha and Omega. All this I doubt not you had seen for yourself. I shall soon be letting you have the ballad of The White Ship, which William on Sunday pronounced one of my very best things. I hope you will think so too. I have made great progress with the Vanna Primavera picture since you saw it. The figure is now full-length and looks very well. Your most loving son Gabriel 35,000 GBP Sothebys
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:31:10 +0000
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