Found: compositional design

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date: c. 1854 - 55

Materials: Pen and black ink

London at dawn

'Found' (Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, U.S.A.) was the only oil painting undertaken by Rossetti of a subject drawn from modern life and with a moral message.

According to his own account,
"The picture represents a London street at dawn. A drover has left his cart in the middle of the road, and has run a little way after a girl who has passed him, wandering in the streets. He had just come up with her and she, recognising him, has sunk under her shame upon her knees". 

Moral decline 

The rescue of a (literally) fallen woman, with the implied contrast between urban moral degradation and rural innocence, presents an image that is rather simplistic, but forceful and effective.

"I remember thee; the kindness of thy youth, the love of thy betrothal"

Used as a caption, this biblical quotation, from Jeremiah, was suggested by Rossetti's sister Maria.