Sigismonda or Gismonda, a study by Joseph Edward Southall, RWS RBSA NEAC, 1861-1944

Sigismonda or Gismonda, a study

Joseph Edward Southall, 1861-1944

Signed in the border with monogram and dated 18 Apr 1896

Watercolour, pen and ink and pencil heightened with gold paint on paper

6 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches, 16 x 12 centimetres

Inscribed in the border with the artist's notes: Gismonda /Pillow outside coverlet / Gold spot on counter pain /Little red tablecover /Shoes and illustrated with hand and shoe studies. Inscribed on the verso: Gismonda. Prelim study. Burne Jones lent his studio for the painting of this picture. He was enthusiastic in his appreciation of the works of JES. Model for central figure was Anna Elizabeth Baker, later his wife.

Provenance: The Fine Art Society, London

Exhibited: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Joseph Southall 1861-1944; Artist Craftsman, 1980, number 132(i); London, The Fine Art Society, 1981.

Commentary by Sally Burgess and Peter Nahum

This watercolour is a jewel-like study for the magnificent tempera painting of 1897, Sigismonda Drinking the Poison (Birmingham Musewn and Art Gallery).

Sigismonda was the daughter of Tancred, Prince of Salerno. Enraged by his daughter's love for the courtier, Guiscardo, he ordered him to be strangled. His heart was sent to Sigismonda in a golden goblet, whereupon she poured poison into the goblet and drank it exclaiming:

Oh louing hart, all my dutie is
Fuyilled lowurdes thee, hauinge nowe
Nothinge to doe but onely to yelde
Foorth my ghoste, to accompany thyn

According to the inscription on the reverse: Burne-Jones lent his studio for the painting of this picture. Arthur Gaskin took Sigismonda to show to Burne-Jones on the 11 March 1897. On seeing the painting, Burne-Jones was highly enthusiastic: certainly Southall often referred to the subject in his letters to Anna Elizabeth Baker while he and Gaskin were en route to Italy:

Paris. 12. X. 1897

I think he means to take me up pretty well. Evidently he was very pleased and thanked Arthur Gaskin for taking them for him to see. He said it was 'quite an excitement' and that Birmingham would be 'the centre of art'.

Pisa. 18. 111. 1897.

... It seems one thing that EB-J said of me was that 'this man is on the light track — there & no saying what he may not do' — That was nice wasn't it. - - - I went to lunch with E B-J and he discussed the picture which needed certain alterations principally to the faces which were not beautiful enough though he said of 'the picture as a whole that 'he loved that picture'. In colour and tone he said I had nothing to learn!

References

Nahum, Peter, and Sally Burgess. Pre-Raphaelite-Symbolist-Visionary. London: Peter Nahum at Leicester Galleries. Catalogue number 39.

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Last modified December 2001