Terms and conditions of use
Fair Rosamund
(1854)
Medium
oil on cardboard
Measurements
40.3 × 30.5 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Miss Eva Gilchrist in memory of her uncle P. A. Daniel, 1956
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Poison was the weapon of choice for murderesses during the nineteenth century, with arsenic implicated in nearly a third of all criminal cases in Victorian Britain. It is not surprising, then, that the story of Rosamund, mistress of Henry II of England, resonated with artists and poets during this period. According to legend, Henry created a secret garden for Rosamund, accessible only by a maze on his property at Oxfordshire. The garden was discovered by the king’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who then poisoned Rosamund. Here, Hughes uses deadly foxgloves to symbolise the unfolding narrative.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in white paint l.l.: A. Hughes
Accession Number
3334-4
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)
History and Legend Human Figures Relationships and Interactions
Subjects (specific)
archways flowers (plant components) gardens (open spaces) Medievalism mistresses (romantic partners) murders (deaths) wives women (female humans)
Movements
Pre-Raphaelite
Provenance
Exhibited Winter Exhibition, French Gallery, London, 1854; collection of Peter Augustine Daniel (d. 1917), London, 1854–1917; by descent to Miss Eva K. Gilchrist (d. 1956), 1917; by whom donated to the NGV, 1956.
Exhibited Winter Exhibition (The Sketch Exhibition), French Gallery, London, 1854; Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition, no. 4, London, 1857, no. 36, as private collection, Cambridge; American Exhibition of English Art, National Academy of Design, New York, October–December 1857, no 86; loaned to the Tate Gallery, London 1920–56; Pre-Raphaelite Art, Adelaide Festival & State Art Galleries of Australia 1962, no. 31; Praraffaeliten, Baden-Baden and Frankfurt, 1973–4, no. 80.