Michael Scott’s Wooing

Details

Date: c.1870
Dimensions: 73 x 75.6
Object Type: drawing
Material: chalk on paper
Catalogue number: BrD43
Artist: Rossetti | Dante Gabriel | 1828 | 1882
Sitter: Morris (née Burden) | Jane | 1839 | 1914
Credit notes: Brangwyn gift, 1940

This chalk study by Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts the medieval Scottish magician and astronomer Michael Scott placing a ring on the finger of a young girl. The features of the seated central woman are those of Jane Morris, with whom Rossetti was having an affair. The winged figure of love looks up, away from the couple and a draped woman cuts across from the girl’s girdle.