The subject was commissioned by Ellen Heaton, but John Ruskin, who had requested five watercolours from Rossetti, bought it for 35 guineas and offered it, along with another picture, to Miss Heaton. He described the picture to her in a letter as 'a most gloomy drawing – very grand – but dreadful – of Dante seeing the soul of Francesca and her lover!' Not surprisingly, Heaton was dissuaded from buying the picture, which Ruskin kept for himself. Cf. V. Surtees, The Paintings & Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882): A Catalogue Raisonné, vol.1, Oxford 1971, p. 37. See also the Tate's ref.[1]
