I have done some further rreeasch into the Hanging the Misteltoe picture. Apparently there are two versions. An oil painting dated 1862-65 and a chalk drawing. The chalk drawing was done in 1860 and has that date inscribed on the frame. It was originally a study for the oil but Rossetti worked on it later and then gave it to his friend George Boyce on 6th December, 1868. My own theory is that Fanny Cornforth sat for the study (the chalk drawing) sometime in 1860 exactly when I don't know, but the subject of the picture suggests it would have been around Christmas time probably late October/November. The Rossettis spent that Christmas with the Morrises at The Red House in Kent, together with the Burne-Joneses. All three wives were expecting their first babies at the time. Can't you just picture them all celebrating the holiday round a blazing log fire in that splendid house while Fanny Cornforth the girl hanging the mistletoe is left to spend her Christmas in a dreary boarding house in Lambeth with her drunk and feckless husband, Timothy Hughes? As you might have guessed, I have a soft spot for poor old Fanny C!
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Stephan said (08/09/2012 at 17:28)
I have done some further rreeasch into the Hanging the Misteltoe picture. Apparently there are two versions. An oil painting dated 1862-65 and a chalk drawing. The chalk drawing was done in 1860 and has that date inscribed on the frame. It was originally a study for the oil but Rossetti worked on it later and then gave it to his friend George Boyce on 6th December, 1868. My own theory is that Fanny Cornforth sat for the study (the chalk drawing) sometime in 1860 exactly when I don't know, but the subject of the picture suggests it would have been around Christmas time probably late October/November. The Rossettis spent that Christmas with the Morrises at The Red House in Kent, together with the Burne-Joneses. All three wives were expecting their first babies at the time. Can't you just picture them all celebrating the holiday round a blazing log fire in that splendid house while Fanny Cornforth the girl hanging the mistletoe is left to spend her Christmas in a dreary boarding house in Lambeth with her drunk and feckless husband, Timothy Hughes? As you might have guessed, I have a soft spot for poor old Fanny C!
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