Il Ramoscello

DGR sent the picture to Gambart on 2 November 1865 and added a note: “I send the Bellebuona, a name formed of course from the Italian words ‘Bella e Buona,’ ‘Fair & Good.’ I have already enlarged the picture as much as it will bear with advantage. The background, being a plain tint, should not be too large” (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 65. 157 ). A pencil and sepia study for the picture is recorded but its whereabouts are not known.

When DGR made this picture he associated it with a poem he wrote at the same time, titled (as was the picture at that point) Bella e Buona. He later changed the poem's name to “Plighted Promise” when he came to include it in his 1870 Poems, thus erasing the “double work” status that poem and picture originally had.