Disappointed Love thumbnail 1
Disappointed Love thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Paintings, Room 82, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries

Disappointed Love

Oil Painting
1821 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This was the first painting Danby exhibited and it became one of his best known works. It depicts a heartbroken young woman in the pose traditionally associated with the state of melancholy. A bonnet, shawl and miniature portrait of her lover lie beside her, while a torn-up letter floats away on the pond.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleDisappointed Love (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
oil on panel
Brief description
Oil painting entitled 'Disappointed Love' by Francis Danby. Great Britain, 1821.
Physical description
A young woman in white is set against a dark background, distraught and weeping into her lap on a secluded river bank. The clues to her 'disappointed love' lie strewn about her: her bonnet and shawl, a miniature of a young man, an open wallet with a letter and torn scraps of paper.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 62.8cm
  • Estimate width: 81.2cm
Dimensions taken from Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990
Style
Marks and inscriptions
'F Danby' (Signed by the artist)
Credit line
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Object history
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Subjects depicted
Summary
This was the first painting Danby exhibited and it became one of his best known works. It depicts a heartbroken young woman in the pose traditionally associated with the state of melancholy. A bonnet, shawl and miniature portrait of her lover lie beside her, while a torn-up letter floats away on the pond.
Bibliographic references
  • Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 58-59
  • 100 Great Paintings in The Victoria & Albert Museum.London: V&A, 1985, p.114
  • Evans, Mark et al. Vikutoria & Arubāto Bijutsukan-zō : eikoku romanshugi kaigaten = The Romantic tradition in British painting, 1800-1950 : masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Japan : Brain Trust, 2002
Collection
Accession number
FA.65[O]

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Record createdDecember 15, 1999
Record URL
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