Head by Golden Head, for "The Goblin Market"

Christina Georgina Rossetti|Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1861 · Pen and ink over graphite · Drawings and Prints

In August 1861, Rossetti proposed to the publisher Alexander Macmillan that he create"brotherly designs" to illustrate a volume of his sister Christina's poetry. This drawing is reproduced on the title page of "The Goblin Market and Other Poems." Finished by mid-December, the image was transfered to a wooden block by Rossetti, engraved by William J. Linton and printed and published in April 1862. As if in a fairy tale, we glimpse sisters sleeping in a curtained bed as goblins cavort in the background, the design echoing the related poem which treats temptation and addiction in a symbolic manner and evokes their strength through heightened, sensual verse. At an earlier moment in the story Lizzie manages to resist the goblins's offer of luscious fruit, but Laura succumbs. The young women here sleep peacefully, unaware of the addictive substance that will soon bring Laura close to death and force her sister to undertake an heroic confrontation with the goblins.

Artist

Christina Georgina Rossetti|Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date

1861

Medium

Pen and ink over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020