The Day Dream
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
1880
Oil on canvas
H 158.7 x W 92.7 cm
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Accession number CAI.3
Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides, 1901
Rossetti wrote a poem for this painting, with the same title. It starts by noting new leaflets on the sycamore, even half-way through the summer, and ends, "She dreams; till now on her forgotten book / Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand." The daydreamer has escaped from the seasonal cycle and its vagaries into a world of her own, yet the fact remains that the blossom has fallen, suggesting that the first flush of youth, and love, is over.
Image acquisition and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
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