File:The Ballad of Sir David Graeme - Charlotte Wylie.jpg
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Captions
Captions
"The Ballad of Sir David Graeme" by Charlotte Wylie (1828-1909)
Summary[edit]
| The Ballad of Sir David Graeme | |
|---|---|
| Artist |
Charlotte Wylie (1828-1909) |
| Title |
The Ballad of Sir David Graeme |
| Description |
In a forest, a dog and a bare-footed, loose-haired woman bend over a dead man lying on the ground. A raven flies away. The setting is medieval. |
| Date | Unknown date |
| Medium | watercolor on canvas |
| Dimensions | height: 28 in (71.1 cm); width: 22.5 in (57.1 cm) |
| Collection | Private collection |
| Object history |
15 December 2010: anonymous sale at Ewbank's (auction house), for £3,000 |
| Notes |
In traditional Pre-Raphaelite style, this water-colour depicts the story told in the ballad by the 19th century Scottish poet James Hogg, from his collection of writings, which he called "The Mountain Bard", dating from 1807. THE BALLAD Hogg's ballad imitation 'Sir David Graeme' is Hogg's literary ballad in response to 'The Twa Corbies', which had appeared in the third volume of the Minstrelsy. 'Sir David Graham' first appeared in the Scots Magazine September 1805, where it is presented straightforwardly as 'a border ballad'. The dramatic focus is on the 'lady fair' suggested in the narrative of 'The Twa Corbies', who in Hogg's ballad waits for her slain knight and eventually discovers his raven-pecked corpse. The "fair lady" of the story watches from her window in vain for the coming of her "noble Graeme," who had vowed that the hate of her father and brothers would not keep him from coming to carry off his fair lady on St. Lambert's night. The sun had drunk frae Kieldar Fell His beverage o' the morning dew; The deer had crouched her in the dell, The heather oped its bells o' blue. The lady to her window hied, And it opened o'er the banks o' Tyne; An' "O! alack," she said, and sighed, "Sure ilka breast is blythe but mine?" Her forebodings prove only too true, for her lover's faithful hound seeks her out, and, with mournful looks, induces her to follow him over Deadwater Fell, and guides her to a lonely spot where the raven-pecked body of the gallant Graeme, slain by her brothers, is lying. A label on the reverse of the picture, in Charlotte Wyllie's hand, includes a verse from the ballad of the discovery of the Knight's body, as portrayed in the picture, which reads: "She gae ae look she needit but one For it left her sweet uncertaintye She saw a wound through his shoulder bone And in his brave breast two or three" PRE-RAPHAELITE CONNECTIONS It is interesting to speculate that the "lady fair" in the watercolour is a likeness of Elizabeth "Lizzie" Siddall (1829-1862) who was painted and drawn extensively by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In 1852, she famously posed for Millais' Ophelia by floating in a bathtub to model the drowning subject of the painting. She married Rossetti in 1860 but became addicted to laudanum and died the following year. Charlotte Wyllie was a friend of Lawrence and Laura Alma-Tadema and the Pre-Raphaelites who shocked stuffy Victorian society. Charlotte's work included portraits, genre scenes and symbolical subjects, but was never extensive and is rare. She exhibited at London's Grosvenor Gallery, a flagship for the Aesthetic Movement which launched in 1877 as a liberal alternative to the Royal Academy, and one of the few to encourage women artists. Laura Alma-Tadema was a fellow exhibitor at the Grosvenor. She had particularly close artistic connections with G. F. Watts and may have been involved as a collaborator in some of his work. |
| References | Bournemouth Daily Echo; Ewbank's |
| Source/Photographer | Ewbank's |
Licensing[edit]
|
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain".
This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details. | ||||
File history
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| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 06:29, 3 November 2019 | | 1,999 × 2,524 (2.8 MB) | Levana Taylor (talk | contribs) | User created page with UploadWizard |
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