Love thumbnail 1
Love thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Love

Watercolour
ca. 1862 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This image of two lovers clasped in each other’s arms is based on a poem of the same name – ‘Love’. The poem is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and describes a lovers' midnight meeting. It appeared in an illustrated edition of Poets of the Nineteenth Century published by the Dalziel brothers in 1857. They were key figures in the printed book trade at this time and commissioned the work of artists for their editions.

This watercolour was painted some five years later by the British artist John Everett Millais (1829-1896). He was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of 19th-century painters, poets and writers who looked to early Renaissance painters for inspiration. Here, for example, Millais has shown the lovers in ‘medieval’ dress.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLove (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Pen and ink and watercolour wash
Brief description
Watercolour, Love, by John Everett Millais, illustration to the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ca.1862.
Physical description
Watercolour depicting two lovers embracing against a moonlit garden landscape. There is a rabbit in the background. Pen and ink and blue watercolour wash, probably touched with watercolour.
Dimensions
  • Image height: 94 (Note: 3 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches: Taken from Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, Accessions 1912, London, Printed for His Majesty’s Stationery Office 1913, p.53)
  • Image width: 81mm
  • Sheet height: 147mm
  • Sheet width: 127mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Signed
Gallery label
Display 'Into the Woods: Trees in Illustration'; Gallery 102; June 2017 to the end of January 2018 John Everett Millais (1829-1896) Illustration to the poem 'Love' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge About 1862 Millais has chosen to illustrate Coleridge's poem on the theme of love and the clandestine meeting between two lovers, in the setting of a moonlit wood. The couple are clasped in each other's arms, shrouded from view by the trees of the still and silent forest. Pen and ink and watercolour wash Museum no. 178-1894(2017)
Object history
Engraved on wood by Dalziel Bros. on p.137 of The Poets of the Nineteenth Century , edited by R.A. Wilmott, 1867. Reproduced in
Subjects depicted
Literary reference'Love' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Summary
This image of two lovers clasped in each other’s arms is based on a poem of the same name – ‘Love’. The poem is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and describes a lovers' midnight meeting. It appeared in an illustrated edition of Poets of the Nineteenth Century published by the Dalziel brothers in 1857. They were key figures in the printed book trade at this time and commissioned the work of artists for their editions.

This watercolour was painted some five years later by the British artist John Everett Millais (1829-1896). He was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of 19th-century painters, poets and writers who looked to early Renaissance painters for inspiration. Here, for example, Millais has shown the lovers in ‘medieval’ dress.
Bibliographic references
  • Willmott, Robert Aris (ed), The Poets of the Nineteenth Century ,( London: George Routledge, 1857), p.137
  • Goldman, Paul, John Everett Millais: Illustrator and Narrator, Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2004.
  • Rosenfeld, Jason and Smith, Alison, John Everett Millais: illustrator and narrator, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 2008
Collection
Accession number
178-1894

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Record createdJune 28, 2005
Record URL
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