Rossetti and his Stunners - Proserpine: A Series

 The land quakes and Haides leaves his dark domain.

 This is the earliest sketch that Rossetti did of Jane Morris as Proserpine. The Proserpine series of drawings and paintings were said to hold the deepest meanings for the couple who could only spend their summers together and winters apart. This drawing was completed while the couple were together at Kelmscott Manor. The composition of this drawing differs from later works: the model's hand that holds the pomegranate is lower yet still relaxed and the incense burner is in the opposite corner.

Dimensions:…

 'Ceres in terror sought her child vainly in every land, o'er every sea. Then at last she seemed to understand her child was stolen. Proserpina’s looks were sad; and yet a queen, and yet of that dark land Empress, and yet with power and majesty the consort of the Tyrannus Infernus (Sovereign lord of Hell).’

In this version, with the background fully painted, the ivy-branch may be taken "as a symbol of clinging memory" and the "Tartarean Grey tone of the picture must be the sentiment of the subject" (Art Journal, 1892).  The incense smoke and Proserpina’s…

‘here is no harm, no crime, but love and passion’ 
Something of an outlier in the series of Rossetti’s ‘most favourite’ composition, this Proserpine, completed in 1878 - shown by the scroll detail in the bottom left-hand corner, is painted in watercolour rather than oil. Rossetti’s love affairs with ‘The Stunners’, including his wife Elizabeth Siddal and mistresses Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth were famously turbulent, built on passionate and unlawful relationships. Though possessing a strength of colour unseen in many nineteenth-century …

'For the girl had broken her fast and wandering, childlike, through the orchard trees from a low branch had picked a pomegranate and peeled the yellow rind and found the seeds and nibbled seven'.

This is the only version of Proserpine that uses coloured chalks. The drawing is softer and the colours are muted, the model's lips and pomegranate are not as red. The work was seriously damaged and restored in 1962.

Dimensions: 47 x 22 inches     Frame: 8.5 x 8.25 x 1.5 inches

Current Loctaion: Leicester Galleries.

‘Now Proserpine, of two empires alike great deity, spends with her mother half the year's twelve months and with her husband half. Straightway her heart and features are transformed.’

The red of the pomegranate and of the lips resound in the auburn hair that Rossetti chose for the last version, perhaps a reminiscence of his late wife Elizabeth Siddal. Rossetti depicts Proserpine in her full power, allowing more light on the wall behind her and on the many green folds of her majestic dress. 

Proserpine, eighth version - 1882 – oil

Dimensions: 30 3/4 x…