Il Ramoscello

By the mid-1860s Rossetti had turned away from the crowded literary scenes of his early years and toward one subject he painted over and over, a single beautiful woman seen close and half-length, filling the frame. He made this one in 1865 for the collector William Graham and first called it 'Bella e Buona,' fair and good, after a short poem he wrote alongside it. Almost ten years later he asked for the picture back, reworked the face, and gave it a new name, 'Il Ramoscello,' the little branch, after the sprig of leaves the woman holds. Much about it has stayed in dispute over the years, including who she actually was. Her name has never been settled.