Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frederic-george-stephens-524" aria-label="More by Frederic George Stephens" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Frederic George Stephens</a>
Proposal Marquis and Griselda
Bequeathed by H.F. Stephens 1932
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: birds
architecture
Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘Canterbury Tales: The Clerk’s Tale’
chicken
clothing and personal items
couple
courting
domestic
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
England, South East
England, Southern
features
furnishings
hat
holding hands
interiors
jug
Kent
landscape
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
living room
looking / watching
love
man
man, old
objects
people
places
Sevenoaks, Knole
sex and relationships
sitting
society
standing
table
talking
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
vessels and containers
window
woman
wooded
<p>This is a scene from <i>The Clerk’s Tale</i>, one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth-century <i>Canterbury Tales</i>. The marquis of Saluzzo has fallen in love with a poor but beautiful peasant girl, Griselda, and is proposing marriage to her. He goes on to subject her to a series of appalling trials to test her love. But Griselda is patient and eventually wins his devotion.The background of this picture was painted from life in the kitchen of the rural lodgings that Stephens shared with his friends Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, at Knole in Kent.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
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
1 August 2005 – 30 July 2007
2007-07-30
1 August 2005
2005-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-01
The Pre-Raphaelites
Collection based display
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
14 December 2018 – 28 April 2019
2019-04-28
2018-12-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
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
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
2023-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-04-06
The Rossettis
Exhibition
The Proposal (The Marquis and Griselda)
support: 806 × 648 mm
frame: 1020 × 855 × 100 mm
Bequeathed by H.F. Stephens 1932
<div class="text">
<p>Like many Pre-Raphaelite works, The Proposal critiques the hierarchy of rich and poor, and explores love across social classes. In this scene from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a nobleman has put Griselda through trials, but she has taught him kinder ways. She thinks about her future. The open window suggests she will leave her father’s cottage. The Proposal is the only surviving complete painting by the Pre-Rapaelite painter Frederic Stephens. Griselda was modelled by the artist Elizabeth Siddal.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults animals: birds architecture Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘Canterbury Tales: The Clerk’s Tale’ chicken clothing and personal items couple courting domestic emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas England England, South East England, Southern features furnishings hat holding hands interiors jug Kent landscape literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) living room looking / watching love man man, old objects people places Sevenoaks, Knole sex and relationships sitting society standing table talking UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions vessels and containers window woman wooded