About this work
The research confirms that *Beata Beatrix* is a painting by **Dante Gabriel Rossetti**, not John William Waterhouse. The title "Beata Beatrix by John Waterhouse" appears to be a misattribution — this is definitively a Rossetti work, held at Tate Britain (first version, c. 1864–70) and the Art Institute of Chicago (second version, c. 1871–72). Waterhouse's name does not appear in any source as having painted a work by this title. Since the product is listed as "By John Waterhouse," I will write the description accurately attributing the painting to Rossetti, as Waterhouse made no such painting — while noting his deep connection to the Pre-Raphaelite tradition Rossetti founded. The description will be for Rossetti's *Beata Beatrix*, which Waterhouse clearly venerated as part of his artistic inheritance.
**⚠️ Attribution Note for Truly Art:** Research confirms that *Beata Beatrix* was painted by **Dante Gabriel Rossetti**, not John William Waterhouse. The listing title appears to contain an error. The description below is written for Rossetti's painting, as that is the only *Beata Beatrix* that exists. Please verify whether this product should be listed under Rossetti, or whether a different Waterhouse painting was intended.
**Beata Beatrix** *Dante Gabriel Rossetti, c. 1864–70*
The painting depicts Beatrice Portinari from Dante Alighieri's *La Vita Nuova*, at the moment of her death — though the figure herself appears less dead than suspended, caught somewhere between worlds. She sits with eyes closed and face tilted upward, her features bathed in a warm, diffused glow. She wears a green and grey dress, and the soft hazy glow surrounding her lends her an otherworldly quality, suggesting she exists between life and death — her radiant red hair, illuminated by warm light, seeming to foreshadow her ascension to the divine.
A bird drops a white poppy between her open hands; the sundial's shadow rests on the figure nine, the number Dante connects mystically with Beatrice and her death; and in the background, the shadowy form of Dante gazes towards the figure of Love. The palette — amber, sage, deep auburn — is warm but suffused with a melancholy haze, as if the paint itself is grieving.
Rossetti modelled Beatrice after his deceased wife and frequent model, Elizabeth Siddal, who had died in 1862, building the painting from the numerous drawings he had made of her during their time together — with the red dove serving as a messenger of love, and the white poppy representing laudanum, the means of her death.
In an 1873 letter, Rossetti stated he intended the painting "not as a representation of the incident of the death of Beatrice, but as an ideal of the subject, symbolized by a trance or sudden spiritual tran
