The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda)

Frederic George Stephens (1827–1907)

1850-51

Oil on canvas

Support: 806 x 648 mm; frame: 1020 x 855 x 100 mm

Courtesy Tate Britain N04633. Bequeathed by H.F. Stephens 1932

This is a scene from “The Clerk’s Tale,” one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth-century Canterbury Tales. The marquis of Saluzzo has fallen in love with a poor but beautiful peasant girl, Griselda, and is proposing marriage to her. He goes on to subject her to a series of appalling trials to test her love. But Griselda is patient and eventually wins his devotion. [continued below].

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The background of this picture was painted from life in the kitchen of the rural lodgings that Stephens shared with his friends Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, at Knole in Kent. — Tate Britain commentary.

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Last modified 5 July 2018