poppies

There's been a sudden poppy explosion in the back garden - both the ordinary big orangey-red kind, and then this fringed one today - with a bee happily at work in it.  This meant that when I went to the Rossettis exhibition at Tate Britain, I had poppies on my mind:

Beata Beatrix: the poppy is conventionally interpreted as an opium poppy, since Lizzie Siddal died of a laudanum overdose, and this painting effectively memorializes her;

These are in Lucrezia Borgia, and therefore might also be taken as dangerously narcotic;

and these are in the right hand top corner of Sibylla Palmifera.  I'd read such scathing reviews of the show that I was pleasantly surprised by how much there was in it that was relatively new to me - yes, indeed, the wall narratives and captioning were horribly Pre-Raphaelites 101 (although they made me so irritated that I ended up photographing a whole lot of them thinking that they could be turned to good pedagogical use.). But it's always good to see stuff that's briefly been released from private collections - and from some, like Wightwick Manor, that aren't all that easy to get to - and this was especially true of the drawings - I loved one (normally at Tullie House, in Carlisle) of George Price Boyce with Fanny Cornforth in Rossetti's studio.  There was a valiant attempt to give a lot of prominence to Christina Rossetti, but I felt that William Michael R's importance as a critic (both of painting and literature) was dreadfully underplayed.  But - worth a visit - don't let the reviews put you off!

And here are a few more details ...

hens from Frederic George Stephens, The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda);

a drain cover (and whip) from an early version of Found;

a rather dented apple from Venus Verticordia;

and some shoes from The Daydream.  I had several pairs of shoes very like this - in different colors - around 1970, from Anello and Davide - basically tap dancing shoes - I'd forgotten them until now ...