The Day Dream Dante Gabriel Rossetti Buy Art Prints Now
from Amazon

* As an Amazon Associate, and partner with Google Adsense and Ezoic, I earn from qualifying purchases.


by
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 14, 2023
Email: [email protected] / Phone: +44 7429 011000

The Daydream is a painting canvas created by Rossetti, the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite association. The picture, which has a height of 158.7 inches and a width of 92.7 inches, was completed in the year 1880.

It showed Jane Morris in a sitting position on a branch of a fig tree. Small honeysuckle in her grasp is a sign of Victorian love, which could be the key to the secret business in which the designer was involved at the time. Unusually for Rossetti's work at this time - this is one of his last paintings - the model is shown in full. The picture is signed in the lower right corner with the inscription "D. Rossetti 1880". The work was commissioned in 1900 by Constantine Alexander at the Albert Museum and Victoria.

In 1878, Rossetti made a chalk sketch of Jane, his mystery sweetheart, whom he met in 1857 at the Royal Theater in Drury Lane. She was a role model for some of his famous artworks, inclusive of Proserpine. The painting was exhibited above the fireplace in the Rossetti workshop. The artwork was originally named Monna Primavera, conceivably enlivened by La Vita Nuova, a story that fascinated Rossetti and became the reason for prior artworks. He was additionally an artist and wrote poems to go with some of his paintings. This picture is the last artwork from his series "Sonnets for images." Rossetti was initially not completely happy with the picture and improved it several times. He composed a letter to Jane and apologized for having copied another woman's legs onto the photo. Morris' earlier painting, Beatrice Greetings, also used the hands of another model in the endmost version.

The scene depicts a young lady in a silk dress that is green in color, obscured by the arabesques of the leaves of a winged tree leaves. Around her and above her head are branches that almost embrace her, or then again as though she came out of a tree, almost like a tree nymph or dryad. The picture is shown in green. The dress is a sentimental, free, and silk dress that flows gracefully along with the leaves of a tree and visually associates the subject and its environment. She is submerged in her dreams and turns to something invisible or may only be seen by her. The image of a youthful, rich lady in her hiding-place contributes to the mysterious sensation of the picture and perhaps offers the disguise of a fall or a secret meeting place. The shelter is dull, yet around her shoulder are light blue fans against a soft green foundation, indicating that daylight has come.