The Blue Bower

Image credit: The Henry Barber Trust, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham

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Fanny Cornforth, the artist’s mistress, was the model for this striking image. The cornflowers at the front refer to her name and the passion flowers suggest her fiery character. But the image is more a hymn to beauty than a portrait. A bower is a private setting for lovers and Rossetti has decorated it with exotic elements suited to a frankly amorous encounter. The tiles combine a Chinese cherry blossom motif with an arabic shape and at the front is a Japanese stringed instrument, the koto. Everything is depicted with a Pre-Raphaelite attention to detail.

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Birmingham

Title

The Blue Bower

Date

1865

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 84 x W 70.9 cm

Accession number

59.1

Acquisition method

purchased, 1959

Work type

Painting

Inscription description

Signed and dated: DGR [in monogram]/1865

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Normally on display at

The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands B15 2TS England

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