The Quest of the Holy Grail

As the inscription on the watercolour shows, the picture is the joint production of DGR and Elizabeth Siddal. Grieve comments that “the composition was invented by Elizabeth Siddal and it was executed jointly by her and Rossetti” ( The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984, 279

The picture probably belongs to 1855, when Ruskin began to pay Siddal for any work that she might do.

The subject is taken from Tennyson's poem “Sir Galahad”, lines 37-48. Grieve surmises that “the design may have been made initially in connection with a plan to involve Elizabeth Siddal in the illustrated edition of Tennyson's poems published by Moxon in 1857” (see Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial, 56 , and Grieve, The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984, 279 ).