The poet in the flames of first love

Stock is a relatively unknown but highly individual artist who was an exponent of the English Romantic tradition. He enjoyed success as a society portrait painter, but his main area of interest was always imaginative subjects. This interest was almost certainly ignited as a result of his going blind as a child. His eyesight was miraculously restored after being sent to live at Beaulieu, Hampshire.

He drew inspiration from a wide variety of artistic and literary sources such as The Bible, Dante, Shakespeare and Wordsworth, the Pre-Raphaelites, Rembrandt, Blake and G. F. Watts. The subject of the present drawing derives from Dante, a source of great inspiration to Rossetti, whose pen and ink technique is imitated in this drawing. Stock's idiosyncratic style is epitomised in this present drawing. Infused with emotional charge, we can feel his personal response to the subject matter.