Sandys at his most Rossettian, this image is clearly inspired by the older artist’s design of ‘Mariana in the South’ in the Moxon Tennyson of 1857. In Rossetti’s image the female character kisses the feet of Christ; here, she seems about to kiss a skull. The faces of the two females are virtually interchangeable, and Sandys recreates and takes to a new level of quaint pointlessness the catalogue of curiosity-shop objects that clutter Rossetti’s illustration. With its swirling hair and flames, its heraldic background, miniature freize and draperies, ‘Rosamund’ typifies the tensions between depth and pattern, narrative and atmosphere, that are central to second stage Pre-Raphaelitism. It is also superbly cut by Swain, and must be one of the most striking and enigmatic works of its period.

Bibliography

Once a Week. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1861.

Poems by Alfred Tennyson. London: Edward Moxon, 1857.

Further Reading and image resources, suggested by Dennis T. Lanigan

Elzea, Betty. Frederick Sandys 1829-1904. A Catalogue Raisonné. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., 2001, cat. 2.B.28, 207.

Reid, Forrest. Illustrators of the Sixties. London: Faber & Gwyer Limited, 1928, 59.

Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards (1861, pencil on tracing paper). Collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, accession no. 1906P917. Birmingham Museums. Web. 24 August 2025.

Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards (1861, Swain's wood engraving). Collection of National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, accession no. 1280.13-3. National Gallery of Victoria. Web. 24 August 2025.

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Created 19 May 2013

Last modified (further reading added) 25 August 2025