Painting of the Day: Rossetti’s “Two Mothers,” 1850-1865

The Two Mothers
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1850-1865
Sudley House, Liverpool

This painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti began as a much larger work. Rossetti’s original plan with the canvas was to show a scene of an aristocratically-draped woman reading a book of Italian poetry. For unknown reasons, Rossetti progressively cut down the canvas, retaining only the bust of the female figure.


The painting lay untouched for several years until it was revisited by the Pre-Raphaelite genius who was inspired to transform the scene into an allegorical image of motherhood and piety.

Rossetti added the figure of the child and, later, painted a statuette of the Virgin Mary in front of them. Re-titling the painting, “The Two Mothers,” Rossetti was finally pleased with his work. The changes in his painting style are quite obvious when one compares the image of the woman with those of the child and the sculpture.

This painting, like many of those of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, finds inspiration in poetry. The theme of family piety came to Rossetti after reading the works of Robert Browning.