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Burd Alane

Dante Gabriel Rossetti [?]

General Description

Date: 1861

Bibliography

◦ Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial, 104.

◦ Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1, 85 (no. 144).



This collection contains 4 texts and images, including:


Hollyer reproduction

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The authenticity of this work, at least the finished oil, is highly questionable. Fairfax Murray was absolute in his judgment that DGR did not paint the oil picture from which Hollyer made his photographic reproduction (see Murray's letter to Bancroft, quoted at length in Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné, I. 85 ).

Literary

The work illustrates a version of the ballad known best (from Percy's Reliques) under the title “Childe Waters”. DGR's title is closer to the title “Burd Ellen”, which is the ballad's title in Allingham's Ballad Book (no. LX) and its source in Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs (1806), I. 113 .

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: s144.raw.xml