Study for 'Michael Scott's Wooing'

This chalk study by Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts the medieval Scottish magician and astronomer Michael Scott placing a ring on the finger of a young girl. It was a study for an oil painting commissioned in 1871 but never executed. The feature of the seated central woman is Jane Morris, William Morris’s wife. The winged figure of love looks up, away from the couple and a draped woman cuts across from the girl's girdle.

Rossetti was a key associate of William Morris and a founding member of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. when it was established in 1861. When he painted this work in the early 1870s he was involved in an intense emotional relationship with Jane Morris, which complicated his work with the Firm. In 1875 Morris restructured the Firm as Morris & Co., buying out the original partners including Rossetti.