The Death of Lady Macbeth

The date of the three principal drawings is uncertain. Sharp assigns them to 1874, Surtees to 1875. Apparently DGR made his finished drawings in preparation for a large canvas, but he never undertook the project, in spite of the fact that Howell had a buyer for such a picture, as he wrote to DGR in December 1875: “What do you want for Lady Macbeth and when will it be begun and finished? Grant wants an important picture, and I am told (not by him) that it must be a certain size, as it is going into a drawing room where there will be no other pictures. Write to me, describe the picture, describe more or less the size, and name your price, and time by which you think it can be finished” (see Fredeman, Correspondence, 75.230 ).

“Filled with a sense of frenzy and nightmarish flux. . ., [the] influences can be seen from Fuseli and his follower Theodore von Holst” (see Grieve, The Pre–Raphaelites, Tate 1984, 308 ).