Goblin Market
Pen and ink and watercolour; signed and titled verso
11.75 x 8 inches
Modern scholars of Christina Rossetti’s 1862 poem Goblin Market, about two sisters, one of whom is tempted by goblins to eat forbidden fruit but is saved from a horrible wasting death by the love and bravery of her sister, have offered feminist and homosexual interpretations of it. The imagery is remarkably sexual. Christina’s brother Gabriel and many women artists have taken the poem as their subject. Primrose Harley was an illustrator and a painter of flowers.