Similar
George Dunlop Leslie - Matilda - Dante, Purgatorio, Canto 28
Summary
“
A lady, wandering through the wood alone, Singing and culling flower after flower, Wherewith her pathway was all painted o'er.
”
—Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, Canto XXVIII, v. 40-42
(see source) Dante's Matilda (Matelda) is usually identified with Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (1046-1115) of the house of Canossa. Leslie depicted her gathering flowers in a beautiful landscape, watched in the distance by Dante, Virgil and Statius. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1860 it was accompanied by a quotation from Psalms; "For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands" (Psalm XCII, 4) The review by Tom Taylor in Times described it as "a lady reclining in a green garden on the edge of a pool starred with water lilies" and celebrated the "power of faithful landscape painting and a thoughtful and graceful feeling for female form and character, which promise well for this young painter's future." It was bought from the artist by John Hamilton Trist (1811-1891) a wine-merchant from Brighton who owned a fine collection of modern paintings, including examples by Albert Moore, Rossetti, Alma-Tadema and Leighton with a particular taste for the work of Arthur Hughes (he owned twenty examples).
Arthur Hughes (1832–1915) was born in London. Hughes was educated at Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School, and entered the School of Design, Somerset House, London in 1846, studying under Alfred Stevens. In 1847 he won an art studentship at the Royal Academy Schools, exhibiting his first picture, Musidora, at the Academy two years later. Although he never was a member of The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he became very close to its ideals and style in 1850s. In 1857 he joined with Rossetti, Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, and others in painting murals on the walls of the Oxford Union Debating Hall (now the Library), an effort which perhaps inspired his later Arthurian works such as The Knight of the Sun and Sir Galahad.
Tags
Date
Source
Copyright info
