#kneelingt

Like many Pre-Raphaelite works, The Proposal critiques the hierarchy of rich and poor, and explores love across social classes. In this scene from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, a nobleman has put Griselda through trials, but she has taught him kinder ways. She thinks about her future. The open window suggests she will leave her father’s cottage. The Proposal is the only surviving complete painting by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Frederic Stephens. Griselda was modelled by the artist Elizabeth Siddal.