The Day Dream by Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1880 - 58.7 x 92.7 cm Victoria and Albert Museum The Day Dream by Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1880 - 58.7 x 92.7 cm Victoria and Albert Museum

The Day Dream

oil on canvas • 58.7 x 92.7 cm
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 12 May 1828 - 9 April 1882 Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1880

Dear DailyArt users, if you need artsy calendars for 2020 we have something for you! Check what you can buy on our new DailyArt online shop: Women Artists Monthly Wall Calendar, Masterpieces Monthly Wall Calendar and Weekly Desk Calendar, with beautiful masterpieces and short stories about them. We ship worldwide!

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 that ends: She dreams; till now on her forgotten book Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand.

P.S. The best-known Pre-Raphaelite painters were all friends sharing romances and scandals. Read more about another great artist, Edward Burne-Jones, and see his beautiful paintings here. <3