Study for "La Bella Mano"

Date1875

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

MediumColored chalks on paper

Dimensions39 1/4 x 28 1/2 in. (99.7 x 72.4 cm)
frame: 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm)

Credit LineSamuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935

Object number1935-85

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDRAWING

Label TextThe figure depicted in this chalk drawing is Alexa Wilding,
the model for the finished painting, “La Bella Mano”. Although titled a “study”, this drawing was executed after the oil painting of the same subject. Rossetti often made ‘replicas’ or copies of popular works which found ready buyers. Charles Fairfax Murray offered the painting to Samuel Bancroft in a letter. Unfortunately, the letter arrived four days after Bancroft’s death. However, his son, Joseph, purchased it anyway.