Apple Stem

Date1878

Artist Frederic James Shields (English painter, illustrator, and designer, 1833–1911)

Artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (formerly attributed to) (British Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1828–1882)

MediumGraphite, watercolor and gouache on buff paper

Dimensions9 x 7 1/2 in. (22.9 x 19.1 cm)
frame: 22 3/4 × 18 3/4 in. (57.8 × 47.6 cm)

Credit LineSamuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935

Object number1935-220

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDRAWING

Label TextThis meticulous study of an apple blossom branch clearly shows the working method advocated by the art critic John Ruskin in his magnum opus, Modern Painters. Ruskin encouraged all British artists to “go to nature, rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, scorning nothing.” The close observation of nature and the careful recording of every detail was a hallmark of the new Pre-Raphaelite style. Shields made this study at the request of his friend Rossetti, who needed an accurate example to work from for the background of his painting A Vision of Fiammetta.