Rossetti and "Sylvester Hethway": PD.36-1980

Materials used in production

Graphite

Components of the work

Support composed of paper ( grey)

Techniques used in production

Drawing : Graphite on grey paper

Inscription or legends present

• Text: Sir Max Beerbohm. No. 9112 / 'Rossetti & Swinburne'
• Location: Verso of old board
• Method of creation: Red ink

• Text: SA
• Location: Verso of old board
• Method of creation: Blue ink

• Text: A preliminary drawing for the series 'Rossetti and his Circle' / published in 1922. In the published version it appeared as / Plate 17, with Gosse substituted for Rossetti; with the caption:- / Riverside scene: Algernon Swinburne taking his guest (great?) new / friend Gosse to see Gabriel Rossetti
• Location: Verso of old board
• Method of creation: Blue ink

Inscription present: from Sir Rupert Hart-Davis correctly identifying the subject, dated 9 March 1970 and addressed to Tim Munby

• Text: My dear Tim, / I think I have solved the problem of your Max drawing of Rossetti. / Directly I saw the photograph I was quite certain that the other figure wasn't / Swinburne whom Max always drew as a waist-high dwarf with flowing locks (see / the drawing of him walking with Gosse on the same embankment in 'Rossetti and / his Circle'). I know the Leicester Galleries catalogued the drawing as 'Rossetti / and the young Swinburne', but that was in 1957, after Max was dead and they / simply made a bad guess. // From time to time the Leicester Galleries used to send Max a list of / drawings sold and unsold, and from these lists I noted a few titles which / were new to me. Among them was one saying: 'S.H. vainly endeavouring to enlist / D.G.R.'s interest in some singularly interesting experiment'. I have no doubt / that S.H. stands for Sylvester Hethway, the dullard who had known Rossetti and other famous men but haf nothing new or interesting to say about any of them, (see Max's broadcast 'Hethway Speaking' in the 1957 edition of Mainly on the Air). / Your drawing seems to me to fit this title completely and I hope you'll agree. / Yours ever / Rupert
• Location: Verso of old board
• Method of creation: Letter, pasted down

Identification numbers

Accession number: PD.36-1980
Primary reference Number: 8805
Stable URI

Audit data

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Paintings, Drawings and Prints