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The Sun may shine and we be cold
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
Signed and inscribed 'Dante G. Rossetti to his friend Alex Munro' and dated 'May/48'.
Pen and brown ink.
5 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches, 14 x 16 cm.
Provenance: Given by the artist to Alex Munro, and thence by descent to the previous owner.
Exhibited: Tate Gallery, Paintings and Drawings of the 1860's Period, 1923, number 195
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The title and subject of this drawing derive from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Romaunt of Margret, which was published in The Seraphim. and other Poems (1838). Another drawing by Rossetti illustrating this poem was also in the collection of [the sculptor] Alexander Munro. It was probably slightly earlier in date than the present drawing, but exact judgement are impossible because it is now in a fragmentary condition. The Romaunt of Margret is a tale told by a ballad-singer of a woman who convinces herself that she is unloved and drowns herself. It consists of a dialogue between the lady and her shadow. Margret successively evokes the love of her brother, her little sister, her old father and an absent knight but the shadow successively dismisses their affection for her, finally asserting that the knight is dead. The fragmentary drawing represents Margret and her shadow. The present work represents the relationship between Margret and her little sister, and illustrates passages from stanzas XV and XVI. Margret speaks:
'My little sister wears
The look our mother wore:
I smooth her locks with a golden comb,
I bless her evermore
'I taught her God's dear name
With prayer and praise to tell,
She looked from heaven into my face
And said, I love thee well.'
But the shadow replies:
'Fair child thy sister is!
But better loveth she
Thy golden comb than thy gathered flowers,
And better both than thee,
Margret, Margret.'
Rossetti's drawing captures the listlessness with which Margret watches her sister. The title of the drawing is taken from the singer's statement in the first verse, and is probably meant to indicate that Margret has wilfully cut herself off from the warmth oflove. This is indicated in the drawing by the fact that she has chosen to sit in the shadow of a drawn curtain while the sun is shining. This early drawing indicates that love was always the central and motivating theme for Rossetti's art. Here, a theme of unhappiness is treated in narrative form. In later works in the catalogue, love is treated symbolically and directly.
The present drawing was made some four months before the foundation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The statue of the female saint on the wall, which is not called for by the poem, is an indication of the interest in the pageantry of medieval worship that Rossetti brought into the Brotherhood, which helped to shape much of their early art. However the style of this drawing is still tonal and volumetric. In the heady months of discussion that would lead up to the Brotherhood, Rossetti was to learn far more about medieval art itself, and would develop a style of drawing that was linear and spiky, in such works as 'Genevieve' of August 1848 (Fitzwilliam. Museum, Cambridge). The present drawing therefore represents Rossetti's art at a vital period of transition.
Morgan, Hilary, and Peter Nahum. Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Their Century. London: Peter Nahum, 1989. Catalogue number 16.
Surtees, Virginia. The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1822-1882). A Catalogue Raisonné. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. Catalogue number 25.
Last modified 23 May 2006