How they met themselves

This bronze group may be identified with that described in a manuscript notebook listing the contents of Sargent's studio on his death: 'Bronze. Four figures, after Rossetti. The lovers meeting their own souls, by J. S. Sargent. 10 inches high.' The composition of this piece is based on a drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, that shows two lovers meeting with their doubles in a wood at midnight - perceived to be an omen of death. According to a biography of Sargent published in 1927, a small engraving of Rossetti's The Meeting of Arthur and Guinevere was displayed in Sargent's studio.

John Singer Sargent (b. Florence 1856 - d. London 1925) was an American painter and draughtsman, active in England. He was the most fashionable portrait painter working in England and the USA in the late 19th, early 20th century.