Medallion relief of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, by John Hancock. September 1846. Left: Plaster bas-relief roundel, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches (20 x 20 cm), in the collection of Wightwick Manor (item 1758880), © National Trust. Right: Wood engraving after Hancock's medallion, by Paul Jonnard, 4 ¾ x 4 ½ inches (12.0 x 11.5 cm), © National Portrait Gallery, NPG P1273(56). Both reproduced here by kind permission.
John Hancock made a portrait medallion sketch of his friend in September 1846 when Rossetti was an eighteen-year-old student at the Royal Academy Schools. It is a head and neck view in profile to the left showing the dashing young Rossetti when he still had his long curly hair. When Rossetti had been admitted as a student at the Royal Academy in July 1846 another student recorded his impression of Gabriel, which is very much in keeping with what Hancock has shown:
Thick, beautiful, and closely curled masses of rich brown much-neglected hair, fell about an ample brow, and almost to the wearer's shoulders; strong eyebrows marked with their dark shadows a pair of rather sunken eyes, in which a sort of fire, instinct of what may be called proud cynicism, burned with a furtive kind of energy, and was distinctly, if somewhat luridly, glowing. His rather high cheekbones were the more observable because his cheeks were roseless, and hollow enough to indicate the waste of life and midnight oil to which the youth was addicted; close shaving left bare his very full, not to say sensuous, lips and square-cut masculine chin. [Stephens 10]
The features are also consistent with Rossetti's pencil and white chalk self-portrait of 1847, now in the National Portrait Gallery in London, accession no. NPG 857.
Self-Portrait in 1847 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. © National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 57. [Click on the image for more information. ]
When the engraving of the medallion was published in The Magazine of Art in 1889, in an article by William Michael Rossetti on the portraits of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William compared Hancock's portrait relief with the afore-mentioned self-portrait drawing by Gabriel:
If one strikes a mental balance between this medallion and the pencil head which we have just been considering, we shall come very near to the true appearance of my brother in those early and teeming years. For a youth in his nineteenth [sic] year, the face, as represented by Hancock, is a little haggard; it seems foreshadowed with the work, the aspiration, the passion, of years to come. The mould of feature is thin and bony; the nose perceptibly though slightly aquiline; the expression of the eyes one of steady thought, half-inquiring and half-challenging; the mouth sensitive and mobile. This is a good piece of work by a young sculptor who promised at his outset more than he performed in his maturity. [23]
Bibliography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. National Portrait Gallery London. Web. 27 April 2024.
Rossetti, William Michael. "The Portraits of Dante Gabriel Rossetti." The Magazine of Art XII (1889): 21-26. Internet Archive. Web. 27 April 2024. [Note: The images here are of poor quality.]
Stephens, Frederic George. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London: Seeley and Co. Ltd, 1894.
Created 27 April 2024