Two sets of text frame an illustration lily flowers.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Page from a book with the title “Saint Christopher” at the top. Below the title are two large, tall sets of text, the left in English and the right in Italian. Both portions of text are enclosed by a thin rectangular border. Each is a religious poem arranged in four stanzas, with the first letter of each line written in a larger, decorative style. Between the two boxes of text is an illustration of a lily with one bloom and one bud. On its stalk are many narrow leaves, some of which are obscured by the boxes of text and some of which extend in front of them.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1984.820
People
Francesca Alexander, American (Boston MA 1837 - 1917 Florence Italy)
Title
Text with Lily, for "The Ballad of Santa Zita" from "Tuscan Songs"
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1868 - 1882
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/309303

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown ink over graphite erasures on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
38.9 × 28.4 cm (15 5/16 × 11 3/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: upper edge, black ink: S. Zita
  • inscription: u.r.c., black ink: LXXVII

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
John Ruskin; Sven Bruntjen Fine Arts, Woodside CA; sold to private collector, 1981; gift to Fogg Art Museum, 1984.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Anonymous Gift in honor of Joseph Goldyne
Accession Year
1984
Object Number
1984.820
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Francesca Alexander, Tuscan Songs Collected, Translated and Illustrated by Francesca Alexander, Houghton Mifflin Company (Cambridge, MA, 1897), plate LXVIII
  • E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin, G. Allen (London, England, 1903 -1912), vol. 32, p. 46, leaves 78 - 92
  • Van Wyck Brooks, The Dream of Arcadia: American Writers and Artists in Italy, 1760 - 1915, Dutton (New York, NY, 1958), pp. 176 - 188
  • Francesca Alexander (1837 - 1917): Drawings for "Roadside Songs of Tuscany", auct. cat., Sven H. A. Bruntjen Fine Arts (Woodside, CA, Winter 1981), p. 13, no. 40, reproduced in b/w, no. 40
  • Linda S. Ferber and William H. Gerdts, The New Path: Ruskin and the American Pre-Raphaelites, exh. cat., Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY, 1985), pp. 228 - 231
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, Melissa Renn, and Susan C. Ricci, The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and Their Circle, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2007), pp. 55, 92, pl. 2

Exhibition History

  • The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and Their Circle, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/07/2007 - 07/08/2007
  • 32Q: 2130 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/31/2019 - 11/08/2021

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu