Day Dream by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted this portrait of Jane Morris, entitled "Day Dream" in 1880. I would have to say that her grasp on the branch is quite provocative. I also love the detail of the leaves on the honeysuckle vine! The painting was accompanied by the following sonnet, which Rossetti inscribed on the frame:

The thronged boughs of the shadowy sycamore
Still bear young leaflets half the summer through;
From when the robin 'gainst the unhidden blue
Perched dark, till now, deep in the leafy core,
The embowered throstle's urgent wood-notes soar
Through summer silence. Still the leaves come new;
Yet never rosy-sheathed as those which drew
Their spiral tongues from spring-buds heretofore.
Within the branching shade of Reverie
Dreams even may spring till autumn; yet none be
Like woman's budding day-dream spirit-fann'd.
Lo! tow'rd deep skies, not deeper than her look,
She dreams; till now on her forgotten book
Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand.

Both the painting and poem were inspired by Tennyson's poem of the same name, The Daydream.

Image courtesy the Victorian and Albert Museum