The Day Dream

The sitter for this painting was Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris, who often posed for Rossetti. At the time this was painted Rossetti was involved in an illicit love affair with Jane. He shows her sitting in the branches of a sycamore tree and holding a sprig of honeysuckle. This sweet-smelling climbing plant symbolized the bonds of love for the Victorians, and Rossetti may have included it here as a subtle reference to the relationship between artist and model. Rossetti was also a poet, and the title relates to his poem of the same name which ends: “She dreams; till now on her forgotten book Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand”. Rossetti had not initially been fully satisfied with the painting and he made several revisions to it. He wrote to Morris apologising for copying the feet of another woman onto the picture. An earlier painting of Morris, entitled The Salutation of Beatrice, had similarly used a different model's hands in the final version. Such a beautiful woman she was! Oh I forgot to mention - today is Rossetti's birthday, he was born on this day in 1828 :] Long live the Pre-Raphaelites!