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Dante Gabriel Rossetti

London, 1828 - Birchington on Sea, 1882

The Loving Cup

Date 1867
Materials and Techniques oil on panel
Size(cm) 66 x 45.7
Inscriptions Monogrammed and dated lower left: DGR 1867; titled and inscribed on the frame (top): THE LOVING CUP; (bottom): Douce nuit et joyeux jour / A chevalier de bel amour.
Credit Line Ex-Matsukata Collection
Standard ref. Surtees 201; M942
Category Paintings
Collection Number P.1984-0005

A British Victorian-era painter and poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti formed the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood seeking to recapture the naïve approach to art of the time before Raphael. The painting shows a woman raising a golden “loving cup”. Behind her are four brass plates depicting scenes from the Bible and ivy leaves symbolizing loyalty and eternity. The inscription on the frame, “Douce nuit et joyeux jour/A chevalier de bel amour”(“Sweet night and happy days./To the well-loved knight”), suggests she may be offering a toast to her lover on his way to war. (Source: Gallery label, October 2016)

Provenance

Frederick Richards Leyland; his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 28 May 1892 (Lugt 50880), lot 58; T. H. Ismay, ca. 1908; Mrs. Chandos-Pole-Gell, 1923; Thomas Agnew & Sons, London [gallery label on the reverse]; W. Lawson Peacock & Co., London [gallery label on the reverse]; Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe; pledged by Matsukata to save his business, Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd., Kobe and then seized by Jugo Bank, Tokyo, 1927, no. 8 [Jugo Bank label on the reverse]; Kyūzaemon Wada, Kobe, 1927; Chichibu Shōkai, Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 1971; purchased by NMWA, 1984.

Exhibition History

1883
Exhibition of works by the old masters, and by deccased masters of the British school, including a special selection from the work of John Linnell and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 0  1883 - 0  1883, cat. no. 299
1989
The Old Matsukata Collection, Kobe City Museum, 14 September 1989 - 26 November 1989, cat. no. 71, col. repr.
1990
Rossetti, Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, 22 September 1990 - 14 November 1990, cat. no. 44, col. repr.
2014
The Rings from The Hashimoto Collection of The National Museum of Western Art, The National Museum of Western Art, 8 July 2014 - 15 September 2014, cat. no. 247
2019
The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 22, col. repr.

Bibliography

1882
Sharp, William. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London, 1882, pp. 191-192.
1887
Knight, Joseph. Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London, 1887, p. xiv, no. 232.
1894
Stephens, Frederick G. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London, 1894, p. 70.
1899
Marillier, Henry C. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: An Illustrated Memorial of His Art and Life. London, 1899, pp. 147-148, no. 190, repr.
1923
Masterpieces of Rossetti. London; Glasgow, 1923, p. 41.
1971
Surtees, Virginia. The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols., Oxford, 1971, no. 201 ("believed to have been lost in the Second World War").
1973
Henderson, Marina. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. London, 1973, p. 73 (as destroyed in the Second World War).
1976
Casteras, Susan P. The Double Vision in Portraiture. D. G. Rossetti and Double Work of Art (exh. cat.). Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 23 September - 14 November 1976, [New Haven], 1976, p. 18.
1978
Smith, Sarah Hamilton Phelps. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Flower Imagery and the Meaning of His Paintings. University of Pittsburg, 1978, Dissertation, p. 105 (on subject matter and inscription).
1988
Annual bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 19 (1984), 1988 , Yukiyama, Koji. New Acquisitions 1984. pp. 11-15, Catalogue of the New Acquisitions 1984. pp. 30-32, repr.
1989
The Old Matsukata Collection (exh. cat.). Kobe City Museum, ed. [Kobe], "Matsukata Collection Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1989, pp. 54, 175, cat. no. 71, col. repr.
1989
Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1989 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 83, repr.
1990
The Old Matsukata Collection (exh.cat.). Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe,"Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1331.
1990
Rossetti Ten (exh. cat.). Kawamura Joichiro. Tokyo, Tokyo Shimbun, 1990, pp. 92, 94-95, cat. no. 44, col. repr.
1990
Catalogue of painting acquisitions: 1979-1989. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1990, pp. 58-60, repr.
2009
Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 91, col. repr.
2013
Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 97, col. repr.
2014
Art for Artʼs Sake: the Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900(exh. cat.). [Tokyo], Asahi Shimbunsha, c2014, cat. no. 7, col. repr.
2018
The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 1: Paintings, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, cat. no. 942, col. repr.
2019
The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 84, 89, 353, cat. no. 22, col. repr.

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