Hesterna Rosa

Hesterna Rosa
Hesterna Rosa

Hesterna Rosa

Date1865
Artist (British Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1828–1882)
MediumWatercolor on paper
Dimensions10 3/4 × 14 3/4 in. (27.3 × 37.5 cm)
frame: 18 3/4 × 22 3/4 in. (47.6 × 57.8 cm)
Credit LineSamuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935
Object number1935-60
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThe subject of Hesterna Rosa (“Yesterday’s Rose”) was drawn from Philip van Artvelde, a contemporary play set in 14th-century Flanders. The play chronicles the life of a young nobleman and his seemingly reckless relationship with a woman of lower social stature. Rossetti has chosen for depiction the moment when the woman in question, Elena, pauses to reflect on her life path and the wisdom of the choices made. The theme of the fallen woman was prominent in Rossetti’s work, and certainly autobiographical, but here he addresses it within the safety of the distant past.

Portrait of Ruth Herbert
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1858-59
Elizabeth Siddal
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1854
Mary in the House of Saint John
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1858
Sister Helen
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1870
Bottles
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1848
The Gate of Memory
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1853-1854
Study for "La Bella Mano"
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1875
Fanny Cornforth
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1862-1865
Drawing for "The Boat of Love"
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1850
A sketch for 'Found'
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
c. 1860
Mnemosyne
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1881