The Awakening

'The Awakening' was inspired by a sonnet from poet Gabriel Dante Rossetti’s (1828-1882) The House of Life. A copy of this manuscript illuminated by Traquair between 1898 and 1902, and her ‘awakening of the spirit’ panel of 1895-96, can be seen in the Catholic Apostolic Church in Mansfield Place, Edinburgh (now the Mansfield Traquair Centre). The vivid palette of 'The Awakening' reflects both her recent illumination colours and her new-found medium of painted enamelling.