32.1 x 27.0 cm (12 5/8 x 10 5/8 in.)
Oil on panel

Inscriptions: Lower left: G C D R (monogram); Reverse: Bocca Baciata no perde ventura, anzi rinnova come fa la / Boccaccio

Classification: Paintings
Type, sub-type: Figure - Female

On view in the: Polly B. and Richard D. Hill Gallery (European Art 1750–1900)

Rossetti here depicts his mistress, Fanny Cornforth, gazing at the viewer or perhaps at her own reflection in a mirror. The sensual sitter represents an idealized beauty, while the artist's use of luxurious decorative elements invites sheer visual enjoyment. Inscribed on the back of this panel is a line from a sonnet by the fourteenth-century Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio: "Bocca baciate non perda ventura, anzi rinova come fa la luna" (The mouth that has been kissed loses not its freshness; still it renews itself even as does the moon).

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gift of James Lawrence, 1980
Accession number: 1980.261

Provenance/Ownership History: Please note: The history of ownership is not definitive or comprehensive, as it is under constant review and revision by MFA curators and researchers.

1859, George Price Boyce (b. 1826 - d. 1897), Chelsea, England (original commission) [see note 1]; July 2, 1897, posthumous Boyce sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, lot 211, to Dunthorne [see note 2]. 1897, Agnew, London, and Charles Fairfax Murray (b. 1849 - d. 1919), London [see note 3]; 1897, ownership passed fully to Murray; 1906, sold by Murray to Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee, Boston; by descent to her daughter, Martina Brandegee Lawrence (b. 1906 - d. 1959), Boston; by inheritance to her husband, James Lawrence (b. 1907 - d. 1995), Boston; 1980, gift of James Lawrence to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 18, 1980)

NOTES:
[1] Boyce, an architect, painter, and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite society, was also a close friend and patron of Rossetti. He lent this painting to the "Exhibition of Old Masters," Royal Academy, London, 1883, cat. no. 309. [2] The name of the buyer is recorded by Algernon Graves, "Art Sales," vol. 3 (London, 1921), p. 104. He may have been an agent for Agnew or Murray. [3] Charles Fairfax Murray was a partner with the Agnew and purchased paintings for the firm. According to Barbara Bryant, in "The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones, & Watts: Symbolism in Britain, 1860-1910" (exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London 1997), p. 96, cat. no. 2, the painting was owned jointly by Agnew and Murray until 1897, and Murray sold it to Mrs. Brandegee in 1906.

This object is included in the following Selected Tour(s):

• All European Paintings
• British Paintings
• Highlights of European Paintings
• MFA Images: Portraiture
• MFA Images: Women in Art
• Wallpaper