Terms and conditions of use
The grey parrot
(c. 1852-1853)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
53.5 × 35.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1913
© Public Domain
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Walter Howell Deverell was not formally a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood but had a strong association with that movement, which sought a return to the simple purity of fourteenth-century Italian art. Deverell had a precocious talent and at the age of twenty-one gained an appointment as a drawing teacher. He was a versatile artist, capable of painting powerfully dramatic scenes in
a style akin to that of the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as intimate studies such as The grey parrot, which is a closely observed painting of contemporary life. The model is the copper-haired Lizzie Siddal who became muse to Holman Hunt, Millais and Rossettibefore dying of a laudanum overdose in 1862.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
569-2
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Animals Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
books curtains (window hangings) parrot pets (domestic animals) profiles (figures) reading (activity) seated figures women (female humans)
Provenance
By descent to Wykeham Deverell, brother of the artist from 1854; from whom purchased, on the advice of Sidney Colvin and Frank Gibson, for the Felton Bequest, 1913.
Exhibited: Annual Exhibition of the Society of British Artists, London 1853, no. 567; The Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle, Adelaide Festival, Adelaide, 1962.