April. Youth’s Spring-Tribute

This watercolour illustrates the sonnet 'Youth’s spring-tribute' from the sequence of poems 'The house of life' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. An accomplished graphic artist, Gertrude Demain Hammond established a self-supporting career that continued after her marriage. She contributed to a variety of London journals such as 'The Yellow Book' and illustrated literary works including those of Edmund Spenser and Shakespeare. Her paintings, chiefly in watercolour, were widely exhibited and are heavily indebted to the romantic, medievalising style of the Pre-Raphaelites.