Lot 75
  • 75

Marie Spartali Stillman

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
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Description

  • Marie Spartali Stillman
  • Fiammetta Singing
  • signed with monogram and dated 79 l.r.
  • pencil, watercolour and bodycolour
  • 75 by 100cm., 29½ by 39½in.

Provenance

The Fine Art Society, London;
Christie's, 25 October 1991, lot 21;
Private collection

Exhibited

London, Grosvenor Gallery, 1879, no. 158 (East Gallery)

Literature

David B. Elliott, A Pre-Raphaelite Marriage, The Lives and Works of Marie Spartali Stillman & William James Stillman, 2006, illustrated p.99, pl.33

Condition

STRUCTURE The sheet is sound and is undulating slightly. The sheet has been adhered to the backing about the edges. The very edges are discoloured and there is a pinhole near the centre of the lower edge. There is a small area of discoloration to the sea upper right, which appears to be where there the artist had originally painted the hull of a boat. There are areas where the gum arabic has cracked in areas of the musician's cloak. There are spots of surface matter to the cloak of the seated woman in the centre and in the central foreground beneath the bouquet and there are a few additional scattered specks elsewhere in the foreground. FRAME Held under glass in a gilt plaster frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Marie Stillman's watercolour takes its subject from Giovanni Boccaccio's Elegy of Madonna Fiammetta – a monologue describing the jealousy and distress of a woman in love, and how in the first place she had ignored the warnings of the gods which had come to her in a dream, and how later on and following her infatuation with a young Florentine called Panfilo she had been visited in her imagination by the goddess Venus who expounded to her on the familiar pattern of love affairs, whether between gods or mortals. The scene represented occurs early on in the story, when Fiammetta dreams of passing through a sylvan landscape, singing happily and feeling utter contentment, but which blissful state is cruelly interrupted when she is bitten by a snake.

Written in 1343-44 during the time that Boccaccio was engaged on the much larger Decameron, and having returned to Florence, the Elegy reflected the love affair that he himself had previously had with Maria d'Aquino, the natural daughter of the Angevin king of Naples, Robert the Wise, and for whom he devised the love name Fiammetta.

Marie Spartali, who married the American journalist and photographer W.J. Stillman in 1871, was the daughter of a Greek merchant based in the city of London and sometime Greek consul. She was a pupil of Ford Madox Brown in 1864-70, and from about 1867 embarked on a professional career as a painter. Later, she became the close friend of both Rossetti and Burne-Jones, each of whom admired her striking beauty and frequently drew and painted her. The watercolour was presumably painted in Florence, where the Stillmans had settled in 1878. It was first exhibited in 1879, at the third Grosvenor exhibition. In 1877 Marie Stillman had modelled for Rossetti's oil A Vision of Fiammetta (private collection). CSN