Graphite and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Rossetti and his Friends
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-max-beerbohm-722" aria-label="More by Sir Max Beerbohm" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Max Beerbohm</a>
Mr William Bell Scott Wondering What It is Those Fellows Seem to See in Gabriel
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
arms folded
Brown, Ford Madox
Burne-Jones, Edward
caricature
garden
garden structures
groups
lawn
leisure and pastimes
looking / watching
man
Morris, William
named groups
named individuals
Pater, Walter
people
playing
portraits
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
recreational activities
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
Scott, William Bell
social comment
society
Swinburne, Algernon Charles
townscapes / man-made features
wall
wombat
<p>In his series of watercolours evoking 'Rossetti and his Circle', Beerbohm investigated the varied associates attracted by Rossetti's magnetic personality. This watercolour gives the impression that the artist William Bell Scott remained aloof from Rossetti's influence, an assumption based on the shortcomings in Rossetti's character that Scott recorded in his autobiography of 1892. In fact, Scott was one of Rossetti's close friends, along with Ford Madox Brown, Burne-Jones, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater and William Morris, who are all depicted in this scene. As the snarling wombat and the well-mannered kangaroo suggest, Rossetti kept a strange and exotic menagerie in his garden at Cheyne Walk.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite watercolour
Mr William Bell Scott Wondering What It is Those Fellows Seem to See in Gabriel
support: 292 × 394 mm
Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941
<p>In his series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a> evoking 'Rossetti and his Circle', Beerbohm investigated the varied associates attracted by Rossetti's magnetic personality. This watercolour gives the impression that the artist William Bell Scott remained aloof from Rossetti's influence, an assumption based on the shortcomings in Rossetti's character that Scott recorded in his autobiography of 1892. In fact, Scott was one of Rossetti's close friends, along with Ford Madox Brown, Burne-Jones, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater and William Morris, who are all depicted in this scene. As the snarling wombat and the well-mannered kangaroo suggest, Rossetti kept a strange and exotic menagerie in his garden at Cheyne Walk.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>A01056</b>	[from] ROSSETTI AND HIS FRIENDS (TWENTY-THREE DRAWINGS) 1916–17 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-d-g-rossetti-precociously-manifesting-that-queer-indifference-to-politics-a01038" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01038</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beerbohm-the-name-of-dante-gabriel-rossetti-is-heard-for-the-first-time-in-the-western-a01060" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A01060</span></a>; complete]
<br/> 
<br/>Bequeathed by Sir Hugh Walpole 1941.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Mrs Charles Hunter; from whom purchased by the Leicester Galleries; from whom purchased by Sir Hugh Walpole 1921.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Lynch, 1921, pp.146–50.</p>
<p>A series of twenty-three <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>drawings</span></a>, variously dated 1916 and 1917. Fifteen were lent by Mrs Charles Hunter to the <i>Modern Loan Exhibition</i>, Grosvenor Gallery, November 1917 (98); the complete series was first exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, September 1921 (1), in the order in which they are given here, again as <i>Rossetti and his Friends</i>. They were published in book form by Heinemann in 1922 as <i>Rossetti and His Circle</i>, possibly an allusion to Rossetti's <i>Dante and His Circle</i>, the second edition of his translations from the early Italian poets, published in 1874. The complete series of drawings was further exhibited in <i><a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Paintings</span></a> and Drawings of the 1860 Period</i>, Tate Gallery, April–July 1923 (336), and was on loan to the Tate Gallery from June 1938. For further details, see below (artists represented in the collection will be fully discussed in the appropriate section of the catalogue).</p>
<p>(xix) Inscr. ‘Mr. William Bell Scott wondering what it is those fellows seem to see in Gabriel’. b.l. and ‘Max 1916’ b.r.
<br/>Pencil and watercolour, 11 1/2×15 1/2 (29·5×39·5).
<br/><i>Exh:</i>
Grosvenor Gallery, November 1917 (98, 10); Leicester Galleries, September 1921 (19); Tate Gallery, April–July 1923 (336, 19); on loan to the Tate Gallery from June 1938.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Rossetti and His Circle</i>, 1922, pl.14 (in colour).</p>
<p>The figures admiring Rossetti in his garden at Tudor House, Cheyne Walk, are, from left to right, Ford Madox Brown (?), unidentified, Burne-Jones, Swinburne (kneeling), Theodore Watts (?) and William Morris; also shown are three animals from Rossetti's large and varied menagerie (of. ‘Dante Gabriel Rossetti in his Back Garden’, repr. Max Beerbohm, <i>Poet's Corner</i>, 1904, pl.19, and 1943 ed., pl.23). A drawing by Bell Scott of 1871 showing ‘Rossetti's Wombat seated in his Lap’ is in the Tate Gallery (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/scott-rossettis-wombat-seated-in-his-masters-lap-n04630" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04630</span></a>).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults animals: mammals architecture arms folded Brown, Ford Madox Burne-Jones, Edward caricature garden garden structures groups lawn leisure and pastimes looking / watching man Morris, William named groups named individuals Pater, Walter people playing portraits Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood recreational activities Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Scott, William Bell social comment society Swinburne, Algernon Charles townscapes / man-made features wall wombat