Watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<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>
Blue Closet
Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit KCMG through the Art Fund 1916
abstract concepts
adults
clothing and personal items
domestic
fine arts and music
group
groups
headdress
history
holly
instrument, bell
instrument, keyboard
instrument, stringed
interior - non-specific
interiors
leisure and pastimes
lily
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
music
music and entertainment
objects
people
period: Middle Ages
plants and flowers
politics and society
reading, writing, printed matter
sheet music
singing
symbols and personifications
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, ‘Morte d’Arthur’
time - sun and moon
woman
<p>Rossetti worked on this watercolour shortly after making illustrations for an edition of Tennyson's poems. Consequently its subject has been related to Tennyson's description of King Arthur's death. However Rossetti himself described it simply as 'some people playing music'. Its title is derived from the blue tiles on the walls of the room. Although dated 1857, Rossetti must have nearly finished the work before the end of 1856, when Morris wrote a poem inspired by it. This was included in his 1858 volume, The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems. Morris was also the first owner of the work.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique watercolour
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
1 October 2003 – 30 April 2004
2004-04-30
17 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-17
Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
27 February 2004 – 6 April 2004
2004-04-06
2004-02-27
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
2003-10-01
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Loan-out
26 February 2009 – 24 May 2009
2009-05-24
26 February 2009 – 24 May 2009
2009-05-24
2009-02-26
National Museum of Fine Arts (Stockholm, Sweden)
http://www.nationalmuseum.se
2009-02-26
The Pre-Raphaelites
Loan-out
31 October 2010 – 29 May 2011
2011-05-29
31 October 2010 – 20 January 2011
2011-01-20
2010-10-31
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
6 March 2011 – 29 May 2011
2011-05-29
2011-03-06
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2010-10-31
The Pre-Raphaelite Lens: British Photography and Painting, 1848 - 1875
Loan-out
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
10 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
10 June 2013 – 13 October 2013
2013-10-13
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
11 May 2016 – 25 September 2016
2016-09-25
11 May 2016 – 25 September 2016
2016-09-25
2016-05-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-05-11
Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the modern age
Exhibition
6 October 2017 – 20 May 2018
2018-05-20
6 October 2017 – 14 January 2018
2018-01-14
2017-10-06
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
22 February 2018 – 20 May 2018
2018-05-20
2018-02-22
Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.mnac.es
2017-10-06
William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain
Loan-out
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
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 Blue Closet
support: 354 × 260 mm
frame: 550 × 454 × 45 mm
Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit KCMG through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1916
<p>This <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>watercolour</span></a> is in the medievalising style of Rossetti's earlier works.  It is one of a series of similar subjects that Rossetti painted for William Morris. Rossetti described the picture simply as 'some people playing music' (Doughty &amp; Wahl I, p.376), but it may have been loosely inspired by Tennyson's <i>Morte d'Arthur</i> and possibly also Villon's <i>Ballad of Dead Ladies</i>, which Rossetti translated. Morris was so intrigued by <i>The Blue Closet</i> that in 1856, a year before the date inscribed on the watercolour, he wrote a poem based on its enigmatic subject matter:

</p><p>Alice the Queen and Louise the Queen,<br/>Two damozels wearing purple and green<br/>Four lone ladies dwelling here<br/>From day to day and year to year

</p><p>Morris's interpretation is purely subjective, and Rossetti commented that, 'though beautiful in themselves,' his poems 'were the result of the pictures, but don't at all tally to any purpose with them.'(G.S. Layard, <i>Tennyson and his <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/pre-raphaelite" title="Glossary definition for 'Pre-Raphaelite'"><span>Pre-Raphaelite</span></a> Illustrators</i>, 1894, p.55.)

</p><p>The four women in medieval dress are playing a curious hybrid musical instrument and singing from sheets of music. They stand in a room lined with blue tiles. Frederic Stephens, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, later commented on the correspondence between colours and sounds: 'The sharp accents of the scarlet and green seem to go with the sound of the bell', while 'the softer crimson, purple and white accord with the throbbing notes of the lute and clavichord, while the dulcet, flute-like voices of the girls appear to agree with those azure tiles on the wall and floor' (quoted in Marsh 1999, p.171).

</p><p>The symmetrical grouping of the figures recalls the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of medieval scenes of angels making music (such as Orcagna's <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/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> of <i>Musical Angels</i> in Christ Church Oxford). The sprigs of holly lying across the top of the instrument may be intended to denote the time of year.  They are balanced by the red-orange lily at the foot of the picture, which Morris's poem links with death.  Various enigmatic devices on the side of the instrument remain too esoteric to interpret, but the symbol of the sun and moon is frequently used by Rossetti to suggest the passage of time.  

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Oswald Doughty and J.R. Wahl (eds), <i>Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti</i>, 4 vols., Oxford 1965-7.<br/>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, p.280, reproduced p.280, in colour.<br/>Elizabeth Prettejohn, <i>The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites</i>, London 2000, p.119, reproduced p.118, in colour.<br/>Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) - A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, p.50, no.90, reproduced pl.115.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>8 December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Rossetti worked on this <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>watercolour</span></a> shortly after making illustrations for an edition of Tennyson's poems. Consequently its subject has been related to Tennyson's description of King Arthur's death. However Rossetti himself described it simply as 'some people playing music'. Its title is derived from the blue tiles on the walls of the room.
</p><p>
</p><p>
Although dated 1857, Rossetti must have nearly finished the work before the end  of 1856, when Morris wrote a poem inspired by it. This was included in his  1858 volume, The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems. Morris was also the  first owner of the work.
</p><p>
</p>
Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstract concepts adults clothing and personal items domestic fine arts and music group groups headdress history holly instrument, bell instrument, keyboard instrument, stringed interior - non-specific interiors leisure and pastimes lily literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) music music and entertainment objects people period: Middle Ages plants and flowers politics and society reading, writing, printed matter sheet music singing symbols and personifications Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, ‘Morte d’Arthur’ time - sun and moon woman