Focus on Venus Verticordia (Rossetti) and discuss the History of the painting.
Patron John Mitchell of Bradford commissioned the painting from Rossetti in 1863, after seeing a chalk drawing by the artist of the model whose body was eventually used for Venus Verticordia. This model was an unnamed woman, described as “a remarkably handsome cook whom he met in the street”. Rossetti worked on the painting until 1868, it was then sent to Mitchell in 1869. In 1867 Rossetti had altered the face of the Venus, changing from the features of the first model to those of Alexa Wilding. In his ‘Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868’ Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote that 
"The great picture of Venus Verticordia has now been in great measure recast; the head is of a diviner type of beauty; golden butterflies hover about the halo of her hair; alight upon the apple or the arrow in her hands; her face has the sweet supremacy of a beauty imperial and immortal; her glorious bosom seems to exult and expand as the roses on each side of it. The painting of leaf and fruit and flower in this picture is beyond my praise or any man’s; but of one thing I will here take note; the flash of green brilliance from the upper leaves of the trellis against the sombre green of the trees behind. Once more it must appear that the painter alone can translate into words as perfect in music and colour the sense and spirit of his work."
The painting became part the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum collection in 1945, after being purchased with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund.
National Art Collections Fund Alexa Wilding Venus Verticordia Algernon Charles Swinburne Venus Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum