Wood engraving on paper
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dante-gabriel-rossetti-461" aria-label="More by Dante Gabriel Rossetti" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</a>
Maids ElfenMere engraved by Dalziel Brothers
Purchased 1924
actions: postures and motions
adults
Allingham, William, ‘The Music Maker, a Love Story ...’
architecture
astronomy
group
groups
industrial and crafts
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
moon
night
people
sitting
spinning
standing
times of the day
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
woman
work and occupations
<p>Rossetti designed this illustration for William Allingham's volume 'The Music Maker, A Love Story and Two Series of Day and Night Songs', which was published in 1855. It was one of the first works by Rossetti that Burne-Jones saw. Writing in the 'Oxford and Cambridge Magazine' in 1856, he considered it 'The most beautiful drawing for an illustration I have ever seen; the weirdness of the Maids of Elfen-Mere, the musical timed movement of their arms together as they sing, the face of the man above all, are such as only a great artist could conceive'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper print wood engraving
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
2002-01-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-01-21
Rossetti and Medievalism
Collection based display
12 July 2003 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
12 July 2003 – 28 September 2003
2003-09-28
2003-07-12
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
25 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-25
Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin, New Zealand)
http://www.dunedin.art.museum
14 May 2004 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
2004-05-14
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2003-07-12
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Paintings and Drawings from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
19 June 2019 – 6 October 2019
2019-10-06
2019-06-19
Palazzo Reale (Milan, Italy)
13 May 2021 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
2021-05-13
Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary)
2018-12-14
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Tate partnerships & programmes
17 May 2025 – 27 September 2025
2025-09-27
17 May 2025 – 27 September 2025
2025-09-27
2025-05-17
Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/
2025-05-17
With These Hands: Paintings of Making and Mending
Loan-out
Maids of Elfen-Mere, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers
image: 127 × 76 mm
Purchased 1924
<p>Rossetti designed this illustration for William Allingham's volume 'The Music Maker, A Love Story and Two Series of Day and Night Songs', which was published in 1855. It was one of the first works by Rossetti that Burne-Jones saw. Writing in the 'Oxford and Cambridge Magazine' in 1856, he considered it 'The most beautiful <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> for an illustration I have ever seen; the weirdness of the Maids of Elfen-Mere, the musical timed movement of their arms together as they sing, the face of the man above all, are such as only a great artist could conceive'.</p>
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2004-09-02T00:00:00
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DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults Allingham, William, ‘The Music Maker, a Love Story ...’ architecture astronomy group groups industrial and crafts literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man moon night people sitting spinning standing times of the day townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features woman work and occupations