"My Beautiful Lady" (Lovers by a Rosebush)

John Everett Millais 

Date: 1848

Materials: Pen and black ink, over traces of pencil

Poem in 'The Germ'

Although not documented as such, this exquisite drawing must be an illustration to Thomas Woolner's poem 'My Beautiful Lady', which begins the first issue of the Brotherhood's magazine 'The Germ', published in January 1850:

Or may be that the prickles of some stem

Will hold a prisoner her long garment's hem; 

To disentangle it I'll kneel

Oft wounding more than I can heal; 

It makes her laugh, my zeal

Drawings Exchanged 

The inscription shows that this drawing was a gift from Millais to Rossetti, who in return gave Millais his 'First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice'.

This shows the close comradeship between two young artists of utterly different background and character, who at that time shared a common artistic cause.