Windus's 'Too Late' and Rossetti's 'Found': The Fallen Woman
Moral subjects enjoyed a considerable degree of popularity in the painting in the last century. Infidelity and prostitution, in particular, were social phenomenon that were seen to warrant social criticism. The forms and methods of the criticism varied but the criticism itself generally did not. Two such visual examples of modern moral subjects of the nineteenth century are Rossetti's 'Found' and Windus's 'Too Late'. Each artist attempts to accurately portray a potentially sensitive social topic on which he subtly moralised. Rossetti allows for a degree of forgiveness and redemption whilst Windus concentrates on the suffering endured in this world.
Rossetti made several attempts at his 'Found', the most complete of which was a pen and ink drawing of 1853. This particular version shows details that are not apparent in either of the oil paintings. We are able to see two nesting birds gathering straw which has fallen from the cart, a cat is visible off in the distance, and one can barely make out a vagrant sleeping under the bridge. There is a tombstone visible in the upper left hand corner which bears a fragment of a biblical parable, which may be either the Parable of the Lost sheep, or the Lost Coin, each symbolic of forgiveness.
The unfinished oil is the most likely the first version of the painting. It was commissioned by Francis McCracken in 1853 and begun in 1854. Rossetti worked at the painting in 1854, and in that year witnessed the criticism Hunt received at the Academy exhibition. Rossetti had not finished the work when Hunt returned from the Middle East with the completed version of the Scapegoat in 1856, which was also much criticised. Rossetti subsequently abandoned the project when faced with the idea of similar attacks. Rossetti most likely abandoned this version of 'Found', finally, in 1859 and began another version which he came close to completing and which now hangs in the Delaware Art Museum. Painted in Chiswick in October 1858/9, it includes the brick wall which Rossetti completed and the woman's head which was modelled by Fanny Cornworth. It is possible that Rossetti abandoned this version on realising that there was insufficient room for the male figure. The second version proved no easier, perplexing him until his death, and eventually to be finished by Burne-Jones and Treffry Dunn. With the exception of one or two attempts, Rossetti would virtually abort the idea of painting a modern life subject. The subject matter was suggested by
Latest Articles