Monday, February 18, 2013

The Laboratory 1849


An illustration to Browning's poem 'The Laboratory', set in the eighteenth-century, this is Rossetti's first work in watercolour. An alchemist seated in his labortaory accepts jewellery from a woman in payment for poison to destroy her rival. The painting illustrates the lines 'In this devil's smithy Where is the poison to poison her prithee?''.

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