Goblin Market
Painted and cut by Margaret Agnes Rope British
Based on designs by Laurence Housman British
Not on view
The central roundel of this small panel depicts a scene from the disturbing and evocative narrative poem "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti (composed in 1859 and first published in 1862). Although the composition is essentially Rope’s own invention, she was clearly looking very closely at the illustrations by Laurence Housman to the 1893 edition of the poem, published by Macmillan, a copy of which is in the Museum's collection (42.72bis). Unlike the more famous illustrations by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (which concentrated on main protagonists Lizzie and Laura’s love), Housman developed the curious scene they witnessed of "wicked, quaint fruit merchant men", envisioning goblin figure types, swathed in voluminous mantles, with disconcertingly veracious rodent, feline and avian features peering out beneath wide-brimmed, shallow hats.
Rope originally intended this panel to be one of a series; another piece, representing the goblins’ failed efforts to tempt steadfast Lizzie with their fruits, remained in Rope’s family’s collection. In 1905, she was awarded a silver medal in the National Competition for her Goblin Market designs.
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