Print of the Month - August 2012
Published by George Baxter in 1856 (Baxter’s Number 165), the print is often called “Gathering Roses.”
The picture above is the later republication produced by Abraham Le Blond from Baxter's original plate. (A "Le Blond Baxter")
It is taken from a large watercolour by Edward Corbould and is said to represent a scene from Tennyson’s poem; "The Gardener’s Daughter".
“For up the porch there grew an Eastern rose,
That, flowering high, the last night’s gale had caught,
And blown across the walk. One arm aloft -
Gowned in pure white, that fitted to the shape -
Holding the bush, to fix it back, she stood.
A single stream of all her soft brown hair
Pour’d on one side: the shadow of the flowers
Stole all the golden gloss, and, wavering
Lovingly lower, trembled on her waist -
Ah, happy shade, - and still went wavering down,
But e’er it touch’d a foot, that might have danced
The greensward into greener circles, dipt,
And mix’d with shadows of the common ground!
But the full day dwelt on her brows, and sunn’d
Her violet eyes, and all her Hebe bloom,
And doubled his own warmth against her lips,
And on the bounteous wave of such a breast
As never pencil drew - Half light, half shade,
She stood, a sight to make an old man young.”
Baxter Process Print, size 6 x 4 1/4 ins. Baxter's original publication is Signed on the ground, on the left, “Published Dec. 1, 1856, by G. Baxter, Proprietor & Patentee, London,” in two lines.
This print was produced from ten blocks, and was originally sold at 1s. 6d.
The print was included in the Baxter, Vincent Brooks, Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, and Le Blond republication issue lists.