Dante Gabriel Rossetti A Record and Study

In common with this drawing two others of the same date belong to Mr. F. Craven, one called Aurora and the other Washing Hands; concerning the Washing Hands the following notes by the artist will be of interest: "This drawing is called Washing Hands, and represents the last stage of an unlucky love affair. The lady has gone behind the screen (in the dining-room perhaps) to wash her hands; and the gentleman, her lover, has followed her there, and has still something to say, but she has made up her mind. We may suppose that others are present, and that this is his only chance of speaking. I mean it to represent that state of a courtship when both of the parties have come to view in reality that it will never do, but when the lady is generally, I think, the first to have the strength to act on such knowledge. It is all over, in my picture, and she is washing her hands of it.