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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ec3094 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69305 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69305) diff --git a/old/69305-0.txt b/old/69305-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c10dd13..0000000 --- a/old/69305-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2637 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rossetti, by H. C. Marillier - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Rossetti - -Author: H. C. Marillier - -Release Date: November 6, 2022 [eBook #69305] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSSETTI *** - - - - - - - -[Frontispiece: BEATA BEATRIX.] - - - - Bell's Miniature Series of Painters - - - ROSSETTI - - BY - - H. C. MARILLIER - - - - LONDON - GEORGE BELL & SONS - 1906 - - - - - CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER - -I. INTRODUCTORY - -II. THE "PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD" - -III. WORK FROM 1849 TO 1853--INFLUENCE OF BROWNING AND DANTE - -IV. FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSKIN--MARRIAGE, AND DEATH OF MRS. ROSSETTI - -V. WORK FROM 1854 TO 1857 - -VI. WORK FROM 1858 TO 1862 - -VII. SETTLING AT CHELSEA--WORK FROM 1863 TO 1874 - -VIII. CLOSE OF THE RECORD. 1874-1882 - -OUR ILLUSTRATIONS - -CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CHIEF PICTURES - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -BEATA BEATRIX ... Frontispiece - -ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI - -THE BLUE CLOSET - -MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE - -THE BELOVED - -MARIANA - -ASTARTE SYRIACA - -DANTE'S DREAM - - - - -DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI - - - -CHAPTER I - -INTRODUCTORY - -Dante Gabriel, or, to give him his full christening name, Gabriel -Charles Dante Rossetti, was born on May 12th, 1828, at No. 38, -Charlotte Street, Portland Place, and was the second of four -children, born in successive years. Gabriele Rossetti, his father, -was a native of the city of Vasto, in the province of Abruzzi. He -was a man of superior ability and force of character, and was at one -time custodian of bronzes at the Naples Museum; but having made -himself obnoxious to the Bourbon King Ferdinand during the -suppression of the constitution in 1821, he was in consequence -proscribed and obliged to fly for safety. Assisted by a British -man-of-war in escaping to Malta, Gabriele Rossetti remained there for -some time, practising as an instructor in his native language, until -further annoyance drove him in 1824 to England. Here he settled, and -obtained an appointment as Professor of Italian at King's College. -Meantime, in 1826, he had married a daughter of Gaetano Polidori, for -some while secretary to the notable Count Alfieri, and father of that -strange being, Dr. John Polidori, who travelled with Byron as his -physician, and committed suicide in 1821. Gaetano Polidori's wife, -Rossetti's grandmother, was an Englishwoman, whose maiden name was -Pierce. To his parentage the young Gabriel was indebted for much, -but especially to his mother. One can judge of the latter's quiet -sensible character, and deep religious instincts, from the portraits -left us by her son. But, besides these qualities, she possessed good -literary and artistic judgement, shrewd knowledge of human nature, -and a fund of common sense which was strong enough to prevent the -somewhat mystical spirit pervading the thoughts of her young family -from deteriorating into morbid and unhealthy channels. Between D. G. -Rossetti and his mother the warmest and most affectionate relations -prevailed, relations that were only severed by the former's untimely -death on April 9th, 1882. Mrs. Rossetti survived her son exactly -four years to the very day. Her husband had died in April, 1854, -honoured at the last as a patriot in his native land. Their elder -daughter, Maria, departed this life in 1876, and in December, 1894, -Christina Rossetti also died, leaving as sole survivor of this -brilliant family the younger son, William Michael, well known as a -literary critic and as the biographer of his more famous brother. - -Albeit English in its main external features, the environment of the -Rossetti family in London remained essentially Italian during their -father's lifetime. Gabriele Rossetti was a commentator on Dante, and -himself a writer of verse, mainly in a politico-patriotic vein. To -the ears of the young Gabriel, familiarized by habit with the -sonorous metres of the "Inferno" and "Paradiso," the name of Dante -for many years conjured up no very stimulating thoughts. It was not -until he had begun as a young man to read upon his own lines, that -the pictorial richness and splendour of the Florentine dawned on him -and seized him with its spell. "The 'Convito,'" he says, "was a name -of dread to us, as being the very essence of arid -unreadableness,"--an interesting fact to remember when dealing, as we -shall presently have to do, with the influence which Dante was -destined afterwards to exert upon two members at least of the family. - -Reared in this studious atmosphere, however, it is not to be wondered -at that the young Rossettis early took to literature. Before they -were six years old they had made acquaintance with Shakespeare and -Scott, in addition to the usual works of childhood, and were steeped -in romance of a more lofty kind than is common at such an age. - -Of Rossetti's early literary efforts it is sufficient to mention two: -"The Slave," a bombastic drama in blank verse, which occupied his -faculties at the age of five, and "Sir Hugh the Heron," a legendary -poem founded on a tale by Allan Cunningham. These two productions do -not sum up the juvenile work of Rossetti of which a record has been -kept, but they are quite as much as it is fair to mention, and serve -sufficiently to show the romantic drift of his earliest ideas. In -art he was scarcely less precocious; a pretty story being told of a -milkman, who came upon him in the passage sketching his -rocking-horse, and expressed considerable surprise at having seen "a -baby making a picture." Drawings of this date exist, and also later -ones done when he was in the habit of preparing illustrations for -books he read and for his own romances. In point of quality, -however, these juvenile sketches are not to be compared with those of -many masters of the brush who began early, for example with those of -Millais, and are chiefly interesting in connection with a statement -of his brother that "he could not remember any date at which it was -not an understood thing in the family that Gabriel was to be a -painter." - -In 1837, after a short preliminary training at a private school, -Dante Gabriel was admitted to King's College, where his father was -Italian professor. His artistic training did not begin until 1841 or -1842, when he left school, and entered himself at a drawing academy -known in those days as "Sass's," and kept by Mr. F. S. Gary, son of -the translator of Dante. He remained some four years at Gary's -Academy, during which period he seems to have acquired the bare -rudiments of his art and to have made a small reputation for -eccentricity. In July, 1846, having sent in the requisite -probation-drawings, he was admitted to the Antique School of the -Royal Academy. His first appearance is graphically delineated by a -fellow-student, whose observant eye has preserved for us a probably -accurate conception of the fiery young enthusiast: - -"Thick, beautiful, and closely-curled masses of rich brown -much-neglected hair fell about an ample brow, and almost to the -wearer's shoulders; strong eyebrows marked with their dark shadows a -pair of rather sunken eyes, in which a sort of fire, instinct with -what may be called proud cynicism, burned with furtive energy. His -rather high cheekbones were the more observable because his cheeks -were roseless and hollow enough to indicate the waste of life and -midnight oil to which the youth was addicted. Close shaving left -bare his very full, not to say sensuous lips, and square-cut -masculine chin. Rather below the middle height, and with a slightly -rolling gait, Rossetti came forward among his fellows with a jerky -step, tossed the falling hair back from his face, and, having both -hands in his pockets, faced the student world with an _insouciant_ -air which savoured of thorough self-reliance. A bare throat, a -falling, ill-kept collar, boots not over familiar with brushes, black -and well-worn habiliments, including not the ordinary jacket of the -period, but a loose dress-coat which had once been new--these were -the outward and visible signs of a mood which cared even less for -appearances than the art-student of those days was accustomed to -care, which undoubtedly was little enough." - -As a student in the dry atmosphere of the Academy Antique School -Rossetti proved a failure, and never passed to the higher grades of -the Life and Painting classes. Conventional methods of study were -distasteful to him, and the traditions of the Academy were especially -arid and cramping to the imagination. It will be necessary later on -to give some description of the state into which the art of painting -had fallen in England before the fresh minds of the young romantic -school, breaking away under Rossetti's leadership, caused such a -turmoil and revolution; but in the meantime, at the period we are -dealing with, it is probably correct to say that Rossetti grew tired -of, rather than disapproved of, the teaching in the school, that he -was full of ideas craving utterance on canvas, and that he wanted to -paint before he could properly draw. This impatience caused him to -take a momentous and curious step, which certainly entailed harm to -him as a technical executant, though it may indirectly have furthered -his career as an artist. He decided to throw up the Academy -training, and wrote to a painter of whom not many people at that date -had heard, but whose work he himself admired, asking to be admitted -into his studio as a pupil. This was Ford Madox Brown, and for his -own particular needs and line of thought Rossetti could have lighted -upon no man more absolutely suitable. Madox Brown was only seven -years Rossetti's senior, but he had studied abroad at Ghent, Antwerp, -Paris, and Rome, and had exhibited during the early forties some fine -cartoon designs for the decoration of the new House of Lords. The -pictures by Brown which Rossetti had seen, and which he mentioned in -writing, were the _Giaour's Confession_, exhibited at the Academy in -1841, _Parisina_ (1845), _Our Lady of Saturday Night_, and _Mary -Queen of Scots_, of which he remarked, "if ever I do anything in art, -it will certainly be attributable to a constant study of that work." -This, and other rather florid compliments of the same sort, may well -have impressed Madox Brown, who was not accustomed to be -complimented, with a shrewd idea that he was being made fun of; and -the story has been told how, in a suspicious frame of mind, he armed -himself with a stick and went forth to seek his unknown -correspondent. On arriving at the house he was partly reassured by a -door-plate; and the evident sincerity and enthusiasm of the boy -himself, when they met, overcame his generous warm-heartedness, and -made him agree to take Rossetti into his studio, and to teach him -painting, not for a fee, which he declined, but for the sheer -pleasure of encountering and training up a sympathetic spirit. - -Before following his fortunes further in this direction we must go -back and note what Rossetti's activities in literature had amounted -to during this period. These are no less than astonishing. To take -the greatest first, they include the bulk of the verse translations -from the early Italian poets, first published in 1861, and afterwards -republished under the altered title of "Dante and his Circle." -Although worked on and revised from time to time, these translations -remain in all essentials much as Rossetti compiled them between the -years 1845 and 1849, and they rank among the finest work of the kind -in the English language, being no less remarkable for their high -poetic qualities than for the subtle dexterity of phrase by which the -sound and sense of the originals have been transplanted into a -naturally colder tongue. Rossetti's translation of the "Vita Nuova" -alone might stand as a monument of industry in such a case, for it -breathes a new spirit of language, a voluptuous and exotic style such -as has never been excelled for conveying the emotional mysticism and -introspective sentiment of a southern lover; but to this he added -that great mass of verse translations and sonnets, involving many -days spent over musty volumes at the British Museum. Even this was -not all, for between the same years he began a translation in verse -of the Nibelungenlied, and finished a translation of von Aue's "Arme -Heinrich," which has been thought worthy of a place amongst his -collected works. Besides these, in 1847, before he was nineteen -years old, he had written his best-known poem, "The Blessed Damozel," -together with several others, including, "My Sister's Sleep," "The -Portrait," and considerable portions of "Ave," "A Last Confession," -and the "Bride's Prelude." The performance of these literary efforts -is so finished, the sentiment so profound and mature, that one can -hardly understand the ambition which kept painting in the foremost -place and made poetry the _parergon_. The ease with which -versification came to Rossetti may have blinded him at first to the -merits of his work in this art, as happened later in the case of -William Morris; but however that may be, he was not encouraged to -abandon painting as a means of livelihood, and having made the -arrangement already described with Madox Brown, he settled down with -a characteristic mixture of enthusiasm and despair to the pursuit of -art. - -Much as he owed to him in the way of instruction and sympathetic -encouragement, Rossetti did not remain long in Brown's studio, at all -events as a regular attendant, but left him after a few months to -share a studio with Mr. Holman Hunt. The beginning of this intimacy -was curious and typical. On the opening day of the Academy -Exhibition (May, 1848) "Rossetti," says Mr. Hunt, "came up -boisterously and in loud tongue made me feel very confused by -declaring that mine was the best picture of the year. The fact that -it was from Keats (the picture was _The Eve of St. Agnes_) made him -extra-enthusiastic, for I think no painter had ever before painted -from this wonderful poet, who then, it may scarcely be credited, was -little known." Rossetti begged to be allowed to visit Hunt, for at -the Academy schools they had barely been acquainted, and, as an -upshot of the acquaintance, agreed to work for a time with him, -sharing for this purpose a studio which the latter had just taken in -Cleveland Street, Fitzroy Square. Here (as well as later in a studio -which he took for himself at 83, Newman Street) Brown, whose -friendship continued to the end of Rossetti's life, visited him from -time to time, and gave him the benefit of his advice; and here, amid -what Mr. Hunt has described as the most dismal and dingy -surroundings, Rossetti began to paint his first real picture. The -year 1848 marks his transition artistically from boyhood to -adolescence, an adolescence in which depth of feeling and height of -aspiration transcended the power of accomplishment, and no artificial -mannerisms obscured the seriousness of purpose that characterized, -not him alone, but the whole of the small band of workers with which -he presently became associated. The formation of this band, and the -painting of Rossetti's first picture, bring us to the story of the -famous Pre-Raphaelite movement, and will more properly serve to begin -a new, than to end a preliminary chapter. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE "PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD" - -In relating afresh the history of the "Pre-Raphaelite" movement, one -has many precedents to choose from. According to the point of view -selected one may see in it the conscious expression of a great -artistic revival, deliberately planned by a body of zealots, and -based upon a structure of lofty principles; or one may go to the -opposite extreme and regard it merely as an exuberant freak, an -irresponsible outburst on the part of a few impulsive youths linked -together for one brief moment by a mutual combination of enthusiasm -and high spirits. For both of these points of view ample authority -might be quoted, and the truth as usual lies somewhere safe between -them. - -The tendency has been, on the whole, not unnaturally, to exaggerate -the significance of the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," which after all -was but the grain of mustard seed from which a great tree sprung. -Its formation came about in the following way. We have noted the -somewhat sudden alliance between Rossetti and Holman Hunt, and their -plan of sharing a studio to carry out work in common. Through Hunt, -Rossetti had become acquainted with Millais, and had joined, or -helped to start, a "Cyclographic Society," numbering several members, -to wit, Thomas Woolner, F. G. Stephens, Walter Deverell, John Hancock -the sculptor, James Collinson, William Dennis, J. B. Keene, and some -four or five besides. The scheme was for members to contribute -drawings to a portfolio which was sent round for all the rest to -criticise. Like other institutions based upon mutual candour, this -society enjoyed a very brief existence, and was mainly of service in -weeding out those who did not sympathize with the new ideas which -were ripening in Rossetti and his friends from those who did. The -final development of these ideas was brought about by a meeting at -Millais's home in Gower Street, where the three alighted upon a -volume of engravings after the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa. -Ruskin has spoken scornfully of this work as "Lasinio's execrable -engravings," but whatever their quality they at least served to show -that in the earlier men, who preceded Raphael, there was a feeling -for earnest work, a striving after lofty expression, which was worth -more as an inspiration than the stereotyped fashion of painting which -had come into vogue in England. Why this mechanical cult should ever -have become grafted on to the ill-used name of Raphael, and shadowed -by his stately fame, is a difficult matter to explain, and requires -an excursus into the history of European art. Its effect on the -teaching of the day, however, is summed up in the following incisive -passage by Ruskin: - -"We begin, in all probability, by telling the youth of fifteen or -sixteen that Nature is full of faults, and that he is to improve her; -but that Raphael is perfection, and that the more he copies Raphael -the better; that after much copying of Raphael, he is to try what he -can do himself in a Raphaelesque, but yet original manner: that is to -say, he is to try to do something very clever, all out of his own -head, but yet this clever something is to be properly subjected to -Raphaelesque rules, is to have a principal light occupying -one-seventh of its space, and a principal shadow occupying one-third -of the same; that no two people's heads in the picture are to be -turned the same way, and that all the personages represented are to -have ideal beauty of the highest order, which ideal beauty consists -partly in a Greek outline of a nose, partly in proportions -expressible in decimal fractions between the lips and chin; but -partly also in that degree of improvement which the youth of sixteen -is to bestow upon God's work in general." - -This canting and misdirected worship of Raphael by men who had -discarded his spirit, and the realization that before Raphael there -were painters of lofty aim, may well have determined the title under -which the three enthusiasts conspired to band themselves in revolt. -From most points of view it was unfortunate. It meant very little in -actual fact, it was misleading so far as it did mean anything, and it -was responsible for much of the acrimony and abuse which the devoted -trio afterwards brought down upon their most meritorious efforts. -One curious feature of the matter is that they appear to have -possessed between them at this time a comparatively slight -acquaintance with pre-Raphaelite pictures, not more, perhaps, than -the average intelligent visitor to the National Gallery to-day. -Scarcely anywhere in their writings (we must except one article by -Mr. F. G. Stephens) do we find praise, or even mention, of most of -the great pre-Raphaelite painters. Nothing of Mantegna, Botticelli, -Bellini, Orcagna, Fra Angelico, Melozzo, Lippo Lippi, or Piero della -Francesca. At a slightly later date Rossetti visited Bruges, and -fell in love with Memling; but his letters even then reveal some very -crude preferences in art. Whatever was perceived or imagined in the -work of the men they decided to follow must have been largely a -matter of instinct, backed up by a strong sympathy for the naïve and -simple charm of the few early Italian pictures which they had seen. -It is a mistake to suppose that what Rossetti and his companions -admired or sought to imitate in these old masters was their mediaeval -and primitive style of painting. The mediaeval quality proved -infectious, no doubt, and may have influenced all more or less at -first in the direction of angularity and awkward composition. But -there were other causes which also contributed to this. Amongst them -may be mentioned an idea that for every scene an actual unidealized -room or landscape must be painted, and the figures grouped without -reference to arrangement; also that for each figure a definite model -must be taken and followed even to the extent of blemishes. This -counsel of perfection, if it was ever seriously accepted, was -certainly not followed even from the first; but the fact of its -proposal shows the austere lines upon which these youthful painters -proceeded, and helps to explain what many people have found a -stumbling-block, the lack of grace and harmony in some of their -earliest compositions. What they sought to follow in the old Italian -models, however, with all their archaism and immaturity of skill was -the honest striving after nature, sincerity of style, decorative -simplicity, and, by no means least, the pious selection of worthy -subjects. It is this last quality, exhibited alike by all the -members of the Brotherhood, that more plainly than anything marks the -cleavage between their "pre-Raphaelite" work and the commonplace -painting of the day. They set themselves to paint great and -ennobling subjects, often greater than they could achieve, out of -their imagination, when the rest of the world (always excepting men -like Madox Brown, who belonged to them in spirit) were painting what -Ruskin calls "'cattle-pieces,' and 'sea-pieces,' and 'fruit-pieces,' -and 'family-pieces'; the eternal brown cows in ditches, and white -sails in squalls, and sliced lemons in saucers, and foolish faces in -simpers." - -In the inauguration of the "Brotherhood" Rossetti took a specially -active part, and the title itself was invented by him. "Rossetti," -says Mr. Hunt, "with his spirit alike subtle and fiery, was -essentially a proselytiser, sometimes to an almost absurd degree, but -possessed, alike in his poetry and painting, with an appreciation of -beauty of the most intense quality." Mr. Hunt adds that the title of -"Pre-Raphaelite" was adopted partly in a spirit of fun, and, like -other names which have acquired honour, was originally a term of -reproach invented by their enemies. On this account they prudently -decided to keep it secret, and to let no outward symbol of their -union appear beyond the mystic initials P.R.B., which were to be used -on all their pictures and in private intercourse. - -The next step was to enroll sympathetic fellow members. Besides the -three founders of the Brotherhood, Rossetti, Millais, and Holman -Hunt, four more or less active adherents were enlisted. Hunt -introduced Mr. F. G. Stephens, who at that time was a painter, but -very soon abandoned art for criticism. Woolner, the sculptor, whose -contributions to the movement were mainly poetical, was introduced by -Millais, or possibly Rossetti; and the latter certainly was -responsible for the remaining two recruits, his brother and James -Collinson. Collinson, a torpid member at the best, and elected -apparently on the strength of one picture which Rossetti thought -"stunning," was mainly useful as a butt to the others, who used to -make fun of his sleepy nature and drag him all reluctant from his bed -to go for midnight walks. Shortly afterwards, being seized with -religious propensities, he vacated his membership and retired to -Stonyhurst. - -For the doings of the Brotherhood the curious reader will do well to -consult the "Memoirs" and the "Rossetti Papers" published by Mr. W. -M. Rossetti. Mr. Rossetti, not being an artist, was himself elected -secretary, and with business-like care preserved in a diary all the -daily and weekly occurrences that came under his notice. It is -sufficient to say here that the weekly attendances of the Brethren, -at first a constant source of pleasure and mutual help, had become -very irregular by December, 1850, that an attempt was made to revive -them in January, 1851, but without effect, and that Millais's -election to the Academy in 1853 gave a final quietus to the -organization, which for some time previously had ceased to exist save -in name. The ranks of the Brotherhood had not even remained intact. -In addition to Collinson, it had lost Woolner, who went to Australia -when the emigration craze was at its height. To replace the former a -young painter, Walter Howell Deverell, had been nominated, but his -election was regarded by some as invalid. Deverell, whose picture of -Viola and the Duke in _Twelfth Night_ remains an almost solitary -testimony to his genius, unhappily died young. He possessed many -graces of appearance and manner, and was in all respects a -fascinating personality. Behind the Brotherhood, and hitherto -unmentioned, we seem to catch a glimpse of another very gracious, but -retiring figure, that of Rossetti's sister Christina, who in addition -to her deeply religious and poetic gifts, possessed a quiet fund of -humour to be expended on the events that occurred within her little -circle. - -We left Rossetti, in order to describe the formation of the -Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, at the point where he had just settled -down in a joint studio with Holman Hunt to paint his first picture. -In an enthusiasm for community of action, and a spirit of devotion to -Keats, it had been proposed that each of the Brethren should -illustrate, by an etching, a scene from that poet's "Isabella." -Hunt, however, was already engaged upon his picture of _Rienzi_; -Millais had work of a less than Pre-Raphaelite character to finish -off, and Rossetti himself was seized with desire to paint a subject -which much commended itself to his mystical and symbol-loving mind, -_The Girlhood of Mary Virgin_. The only one of the three eventually, -who touched Keats that year (1848) was Millais, who achieved a -triumph with the striking picture, _Lorenzo and Isabella_. - -Rossetti's subject, as can well be imagined, gave him endless -trouble, and was a source of violent fits of alternate depression and -energy. Madox Brown's diary, a document full of dry humour and -quaint touches, to say nothing of its pathos, contains many anecdotes -of Rossetti's exasperating changefulness and want of consideration -which show that kindness did not blind the painter to his pupil's -foibles. To Brown's description of Rossetti, "lying, howling, on his -belly in my studio," and, at another time, reduced by struggles with -impossible drapery to an almost maudlin condition of profanity, we -may add Hunt's description of how he had solemnly to take his -companion out for a walk and explain that if the interruptions of -temper and multiplication of difficulties did not cease, neither of -them would have a picture finished to show alongside of Millais's--a -remonstrance which he says was effectual and taken in perfect good -part. - -So by the following spring (1849) all three pictures were ready for -exhibition, and were hung, Millais's and Hunt's in the Academy, and -Rossetti's either from choice or necessity in the so-called Free -Exhibition held in a gallery at Hyde Park Corner. Here it was bought -for £80 by the Marchioness of Bath, in whose family an aunt of -Rossetti's was acting as governess. The picture is on many accounts -a favourite one with lovers of Rossetti's work. Considering the -painter's age and want of proper training, it is a masterly -performance. The scene shown is a room in the Virgin's home, with an -open balcony at which her father, St. Joachim, is tending a -symbolically fruitful vine. On the right of the picture, are the -figures of the Virgin and her mother seated at an embroidery frame. -The young girl, a most untypical Madonna, in simple gray dress with -pale green at the wrists, pauses with a needle in her hand, and gazes -with a rapt ascetic look at the room before her, where, as if visible -to her eyes, a child-angel is tending a tall white lily. Beneath the -pot in which the lily grows are six large books bearing the names of -the six cardinal virtues. These, and a dove perching on the trellis, -are amongst the peaceful symbols of the picture, whilst the tragedy -also is foreshadowed in a figure of the cross formed by the young -vine-tendrils and in some strips of palm and "seven-thorned briar" -laid across the floor. Rossetti painted the calm face of his mother -for St. Anna, and his sister Christina for the Virgin, giving her, -however, in contravention of the rule mentioned above, golden instead -of dark brown hair. - -Although 1848 is intrinsically the year of the Pre-Raphaelite -movement, much of the work of the next two years comes within the -scope of its influence. As an example may be cited the important -pen-and-ink drawing called _Il Saluto di Beatrice_, representing in -two compartments the meeting of Dante and Beatrice, first in a street -of Florence and secondly in Paradise. The whole composition was -repeated in oil in 1859, and the meeting in Paradise formed the -subject of more than one separate drawing. The cream of Rossetti's -Pre-Raphaelite work, however, during the two years subsequent to -1848, is the _Ecce Ancilla Domini_, a sequel in sentiment to his -picture of the previous year. This is well known to frequenters of -the National Gallery at Millbank, and is described elsewhere. It was -exhibited in 1850 under the same auspices as its predecessor (though -the gallery this year was moved to Portland Place), and was priced at -£50. Its appearance was the signal for a storm of abuse and -raillery, which descended with impartial violence also upon the -pictures of the other "Pre-Raphaelites" exhibited at the Academy, and -pursued them relentlessly until time and success finally established -their position. - -[Illustration: ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI.] - -It would serve no purpose to go again and at length into the nature -of this attack. Charles Dickens and many other great men lent their -names to it, and the Brethren were compelled to face evil days in -consequence. But in the darkest hour a saviour appeared. Ruskin, -who before the outcry hardly knew of the existence of the school, had -his attention drawn to it by Coventry Patmore, and with -characteristic fearlessness and energy plunged into the fray. In a -series of letters to the "Times" he defended the artists at all -points, from the charge of being ignorant copyists and realists, the -accusation that they could not draw, the alleged conspiracy against -Raphael, and finally from the subtlest insinuation of all, because it -sounded so professional, the charge that they knew not the laws of -perspective. This ardent championship had one curious effect. In -his warmth of defence Ruskin had not only combatted the statement of -faults, but had revelled in laying down an elaborate statement of -principles. Thus it came about that the original ideas out of which -the Brotherhood had grown, ideas of a broad and possibly nebulous -character, became transmuted into hard and fast rules of conduct and -of practice, which the Brotherhood more or less had to accept, partly -perhaps out of gratitude to their benefactor, partly because they -agreed with them in theory, and partly because they may not have seen -how far they led. - -On the other hand, if we are not to credit the "Pre-Raphaelites" with -all the fine sentiments attributed to them in Ruskin's inspired -defence, it is absurd to imagine, as some have done, that they failed -to take themselves or their work seriously because Rossetti in his -family letters used to speak flippantly of his unlucky little -picture, which, like a curse, had come home to roost. Men often -enough speak lightly to friends of things which have lain at the -heart; and if Rossetti joked to his brother about "the blessed -eyesore" and "the blessed white daub," it is none the less true that -he had striven to put all his thoughts and all his knowledge into it, -with such success that it reveals to us to-day an intensity of -feeling and reverence which few modern painters have emulated, and to -which Rossetti in his later work did not always attain. - -A characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which has not yet -been touched on, and which here calls for digression, was its -remarkable literary strength. Of the seven original members, two--W. -M. Rossetti and Stephens--were writers by preference. The former did -not paint at all. Gabriel Rossetti was, as we have seen, a poet -before he could be called a painter, and a poet of the first order. -Woolner also was a poet, and in this capacity alone belonged to the -movement. Collinson made a third; Deverell a weak fourth. Millais -and Hunt showed no inclination this way; but, besides those -mentioned, the coterie included Christina Rossetti, William Bell -Scott, Coventry Patmore, and Madox Brown, who wrote occasionally in -verse. Even without the need of a propaganda such a body was almost -bound in the nature of things to produce literary thought allied in -sentiment with its artistic ideas and aims. Hence came about the -"Germ," that much-prized periodical, which had its origin in the -fertile brain of Rossetti, and which was ostensibly formed to be the -organ of the P.R.B., and to spread its opinions. The first number -included "My Sister's Sleep" and the prose romance, "Hand and Soul," -by Rossetti. Subsequent numbers contained "The Blessed Damozel," -"The Carillon," "Sea Limits" (under its first title of "From the -Cliffs"), and six or seven sonnets. Of the four numbers published -the first two only were called "The Germ," the title in the third and -fourth being altered to "Art and Poetry" at the suggestion of the -Tuppers, who as printers of the magazine had taken over the -responsibility on generous terms. - -The "Germ," as its brief career sufficiently denotes, fell almost -stillborn upon an ungrateful world; but amongst a small class of -artists and admirers it undoubtedly served to strengthen Rossetti's -reputation. There was nothing feeble or immature about the poetical -ideas expressed in it, and one may even be surprised that such an -original piece of work as the "Blessed Damozel" did not attract -greater attention. Both it and "Hand and Soul" have frequently been -reprinted. The latter is interesting for the light it throws upon -Rossetti's mediaeval and mystical mind. To some extent it is an -autobiographical record, a memory of mental perturbations and -experiences which beset the young painter, striving to preserve and -foster the spiritual side of his nature at the expense of more than -commonly strong bodily inclinations. From an abstraction like this -story of the mythical young painter Chiaro dell' Erma we may feel we -get one truer glimpse of the real Rossetti than any number of -life-histories, overlaid with trivial incidents which obscure rather -than reveal his personality, can give us. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -WORK FROM 1849 TO 1853 - -INFLUENCE OF BROWNING AND DANTE - -Before the first number of the "Germ" had appeared, and while it was -in progress, Rossetti, accompanied by Holman Hunt, paid a short and -hurried visit to Paris and Belgium. A rhyming diary and a series of -jocular sonnets, interspersed with a few serious ones, recall the -vigour of his first impressions. A large proportion of the time was -spent at the Louvre and other galleries, rushing through Old Masters -at a furious rate. - -After their return home Rossetti found his affairs in a bad way. The -failure of the _Ecce Ancilla_ to find a purchaser at once (it was not -sold until June 1853), and the storm of unfavourable comment it -provoked, caused him frankly to abandon as unprofitable the mine of -semi-religious, semi-mystical feeling which he had begun to work, and -it was some time before he could settle down to find another. -Feeling his way pictorially towards the field of romance in which his -thoughts wandered, he began to undertake subjects from this class of -literature, from Browning, Dante, Keats, and later from the "Morte -Darthur" of Malory. His first experiment was a large canvas -illustrating the page's song in "Pippa Passes," which soon became -impossible and had to be dropped. The composition of it remains, -however, in a little painting called _Hist, said Kate the Queen_, -dated 1851. Two other designs from Browning which were carried out -at this time are a pen-and-ink drawing from "Sordello" entitled -_Taurello's first sight of Fortune_ and _The Laboratory_. The latter -was, in all probability, Rossetti's first attempt at water-colour (it -is painted over a pen-and-ink drawing, as several of his early ones -were), and bears but slight resemblance either in thought or -execution to the work by which he is popularly known. - -In addition to these three subjects, Rossetti drew or painted in the -years 1849-50 other themes of a romantic and mediaeval nature. -Amongst them was his first illustration to Shakespeare, a scene from -"Much Ado about Nothing," representing the happy lovers, _Benedick -and Beatrice_, receiving the felicitations of those who had plotted -their match. - -From the "Vita Nuova" Rossetti took the incident of _Dante drawing an -Angel on the Anniversary of Beatrice's Death_, executed first in -pen-and-ink, and originally given to Millais. A water-colour of the -same subject is of later date, 1853. The latter was bought by Mr. -Thomas Combe, of the Oxford University Press, and was bequeathed by -his widow to the Taylorian Museum, where it remains. - -The "Vita Nuova" also furnished the subject of a small water-colour -of 1849, representing _Beatrice at the Wedding Feast denying her -salutation to Dante_. The poet, with a friend grasping his arm as if -to restrain him, stands watching a procession of figures clad in blue -and green, and adorned with roses in their hair. The central figure -of the bridal procession is a portrait of Miss Elizabeth Eleanor -Siddal, who first came into Rossetti's life at about this date. She -was the daughter of a Sheffield cutler, and was employed in a -milliner's shop off Leicester Square, where Walter Deverell -discovered her one day when shopping with his mother. She was -persuaded to sit to Deverell for his _Viola_, and later to Rossetti. -Her portrait also occurs in a picture by Holman Hunt and in Millais's -_Ophelia_. - -Both on account of her romantic history and her individual -attractions, the personality of Miss Siddal has always exercised a -delicate charm over those who love Rossetti. She was the model for -most of Rossetti's earliest and finest water-colours containing -women, and probably for all his Beatrices except the last. - -To resume the tale of early work, in 1851 Rossetti continued to be -engaged on small subjects of a mediaeval or dramatic character. We -have, for instance, the charming little group called _Borgia_, in -which the famous Lucretia is seen seated with a lute in her hands, to -the music of which two children are dancing. Over her shoulders lean -on the one side the bloated Pope Alexander VI, on the other her -brother Caesar, beating time with a knife against a wine-glass on the -table, and blowing the rose-petals from her hair. Lucretia's white -gown is of ample folds, with elaborate sleeves, looped up all over -with coloured ribbons and bows, a device which so took Rossetti's -fancy that he repeated it in _Bonifazio's Mistress_ (1860). - -In the same year (1851) was produced the first design for a subject -of weird and ghostly conception, called _How they met Themselves_. -This depicts a pair of lovers wandering at twilight in a wood, and -suddenly confronted with their own doubles. The legend of the -Doppelganger was one of a class of mysterious horrors which greatly -appealed to Rossetti's imagination, and which fascinated him from -boyhood. Few but he however would have dared to draw it, and fewer -still could have succeeded with it. The first design just referred -to, was drawn in pen-and-ink, and was destroyed or lost at an early -date; but Rossetti redrew it in 1860 whilst at Paris on his -honeymoon, and four years later painted two water-colour versions. - -To the year following, 1852, belongs a remarkable water-colour, -representing Giotto painting a famous portrait of Dante which was -discovered on removing the plaster from the wall of the Bargello in -1839. Giotto is in dull red, with brocaded sleeves turned back. To -his left is seated Dante, cutting a pomegranate in his hand, and -gazing down with a rapt expression to where Beatrice is passing in a -church procession. Behind Giotto stands his master, Cimabue, -watching the work which is to eclipse his; and behind Dante leans his -rival, Cavalcanti, holding in his hand a book of Guinicelli, -symbolizing thereby the three generations of poets. - -Nothing else of importance is catalogued under the year 1852, but in -1853 we come to one or two well-known designs and pictures. First -may be mentioned the pen-and-ink drawing entitled _Hesterna Rosa_, -founded upon the plaintive song of Elena in Sir Henry Taylor's -"Philip van Artevelde": - - "Quoth tongue of neither maid nor wife - To heart of neither wife nor maid, - 'Lead we not here a jolly life - Betwixt the shine and shade?' - - Quoth heart of neither maid nor wife - To tongue of neither wife nor maid, - 'Thou wag'st, but I am sore with strife, - And feel like flowers that fade.'" - -The scene represents two gamblers throwing dice, and their -mistresses, one of whom in a fit of shame is covering her face. She -is the "yesterday's rose." The other clasps her arms round the neck -of her lover, and is singing a merry song. An innocent little child -near by is touching a lute, and Rossetti has completed the other -aspect of the scene by putting in an ape scratching itself, a -Düreresque touch which he added also in the little _Borgia_ group. A -water-colour version of the same subject was painted in 1865, and a -larger version, bearing the title _Elena's Song_, was painted in 1871. - -The starting of _Found_ is one of the most memorable events in -connection with the year 1853. The subject is a countryman or drover -recognizing in a fallen woman of the streets his own lost sweetheart. -_Found_ was commissioned by a Mr. MacCracken, who was also the -purchaser of _Ecce Ancilla_, in 1853, and several studies were made -for it. The picture however was never finished. "It was," writes -Mr. W. M. Rossetti, "a source of lifelong vexation to my brother and -to the gentlemen, some three or four in succession, who commissioned -him to finish it." After his death, Sir Edward Burne-Jones consented -to give a sort of finish to the picture by washing in blue sky. In -its half-completed state it passed into the possession of Mr. William -Graham, and after his death it went to America. - -* * * * * - -A short note on Rossetti's movements during the period just covered -may be given here. We left him in 1848, after a few months' work at -Madox Brown's, sharing a studio with Holman Hunt in Cleveland Street, -Soho, and painting at the _Girlhood of the Virgin_. At the beginning -of 1851, he took in common with Deverell the first floor rooms at No. -17, Red Lion Square--the rooms which Morris and Burne-Jones occupied -subsequently from 1856 to 1859, and which served as a cradle for the -famous firm. In November, 1852, he took a set of rooms at 14, -Chatham Place, Blackfriars, on a site now cleared away, overlooking -the river and presenting other advantages. Here he remained for -nearly ten years, including the brief two years of his married life, -and here he accomplished what many judges consider the most -interesting portion of his work. He had by now acquired a certain -measure of independence as a painter, which went on increasing as -generous or wealthy patrons attached themselves. That his progress -was slow, and that for many years he was reduced to selling -water-colours of priceless beauty for comparatively trifling sums, -was the result partly of a determination which he formed never to -exhibit his work. This resolve, which later on became a sort of -mania, is said to have been due in the first instance to the -discouraging reception of _Ecce Ancilla Domini_ in 1850. For a long -time, of course, it prevented his being known at all or appreciated -by possible purchasers, and his work circulated amongst a narrow -circle of artistic friends. In the days of his greatness it may have -had an opposite effect by arousing curiosity, and producing a feeling -of pique. Buyers were attracted towards a man who was notorious for -despising the public eye, and whose work was spoken of with bated -breath as something supremely precious. With some few exceptions, -however, it is essential to remember that Rossetti's work was -absolutely unseen by the public, who became acquainted with him as a -poet long before they knew him even dimly as a painter. The effects -of this ignorance are still discernible. Even after two great -exhibitions of his works in London, and after the publication of a -wide selection from his designs, there are people who believe that -Rossetti never painted but from one model, and that all his pictures -are distinguished by impossible lips and a goitrous development of -neck. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - - FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSKIN.--MARRIAGE, - AND DEATH OF MRS. ROSSETTI - -With the year 1854 Rossetti's life entered upon a new phase. This -was the first year of his memorable connection with Ruskin. At the -same time he had by now engaged himself to marry Miss Siddal, whose -companionship and whose health became, for the next eight years, the -most absorbing facts in his private life. To speak of Ruskin first, -his was no ordinary friendship, but a curious combination of patron, -friend, and mentor. If Rossetti had been a common man, living an -ordinary life and working on regular lines, such a connection would -have been, as he jocularly described it once, "in a way to make his -fortune." For Ruskin was willing to buy within certain limits almost -everything that Rossetti produced. Furthermore, having taken a great -fancy to Miss Siddal, and admiring her poetic and artistic gifts, -which had grown in a remarkable way under Rossetti's tuition, he -tried to make an arrangement whereby he should purchase all her work -also, and there is no doubt that Ruskin's help at this critical -period was invaluable, and that without it the young couple would -have suffered even more struggling times than they did. For Rossetti -was hopelessly unthrifty, flush of money one day, out-at-elbows the -next, and invariably anticipating any money to be earned from -commissions. The Ruskin letters which have been published, throw an -interesting light upon this butterfly existence. - -Before passing from the subject of Ruskin it is interesting to note -that he enlisted Rossetti as an active helper in the scheme promoted -by Frederic Denison Maurice for bringing art into the East end. His -method of teaching has been described by one who attended his -lectures. He began at once with colour. As in his own personality -and his own work, light and shade, drawing, and everything else was -subservient to colour. Without troubling about the grammar of design -he gave his pupils nature to copy and showed them how to copy it. A -later generation has come to see wisdom in Rossetti's method, and has -introduced it successfully under government auspices in elementary -schools. - -In 1860 Rossetti and Miss Siddal carried out their long projected -plans of matrimony, which had been delayed by the latter's illness, -by uncertain prospects, and perhaps also by a final want of -resolution on Rossetti's part. - -The marriage took place on May 23rd, and the young couple went for -their wedding trip to Paris and Boulogne. On their return the rooms -at Chatham Place were extended by opening a door into the adjoining -house. The independent bachelor habits to which both were accustomed -made life as Bohemian and irregular after marriage as before it. Men -friends came and went as they pleased; tavern dinners relieved the -strain of studio work, and little if any respect was paid to the -conventions of social intercourse. Mrs. Rossetti's delicate health -alone made it impossible for her to go about much, except amongst -devoted and intimate friends, the chief of whom in these days perhaps -were Algernon Charles Swinburne and the Madox Brown and Morris -families. In May, 1861, Mrs. Rossetti gave birth to a child, -still-born, and her slow recovery, added to the phthisical troubles -with which she was afflicted, induced a severe and wearing form of -neuralgia. For this she was prescribed laudanum, of which, on the -night of February 10, 1862, she unhappily took an overdose. Poor -Rossetti, on returning home from the Working Men's College, where he -had been lecturing, found his wife already past recovery, and, -frantic with anxiety, rushed off to Highgate Rise to summon the -ever-ready assistance of Madox Brown. The following morning she -died, after but two years of married life clouded with illness; and -for a time at least her loss deprived Rossetti of all capacity for -work and almost of all interest in his art. The most touching event -in his whole career of swift and flame-like emotions is the sudden -impulse which led him, as his wife's coffin was being closed, to bury -in her hair the drafts of all his early poems, which at her request -he had copied into a little book. Only a poet could put into words -the dramatic intensity of grief which was expressed in this now -historic sacrifice to the memory of Rossetti's dead wife. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -WORK FROM 1854 TO 1857 - -Rossetti's work, during the earlier part of the period we have been -glancing through, was of a particularly interesting, and towards the -latter end of a sufficiently varied character. In range of subject -it belongs to the category described in Chapter III, with the -important addition that now for the first time is added to his -sources of romantic inspiration the "Morte Darthur" of Sir Thomas -Malory. This cycle of old Celtic legends had been for many years -practically a sealed book in England, and its popularity to-day is -largely owing to the interest revived in it by Rossetti, and later by -the famous group of Oxford friends, including William Morris and -Edward Burne-Jones. Rossetti had become acquainted with Malory by -1854, which is the date of that strange, sad little water-colour, -_King Arthur's Tomb_, representing, in an imaginary scene, Launcelot -bidding a last farewell to Guenevere. Apart from this Rossetti had -in hand a number of drawings which were continually put on one side -as fresh ideas crowded into his restless brain, and were often not -finished until many years later. The statement could easily be -verified, that many, if not most, of Rossetti's later pictures were -planned during these early strenuous years of his life, so that it is -not to be wondered at that the actual finished work of these early -years was sparse in quantity and slight in quality--much slighter, -for instance, than the two religious paintings with which he had -begun his career. On the other hand, for many people these little -water-colours of Rossetti's second period have a charm that nothing -in his larger and more elaborated later work can recall. - -In the early part of 1854 Rossetti wrote to Ruskin that he was -occupied with ideas for three subjects, _Found_, _Mary Magdalene at -the Door of Simon_, and another which is not named, but which from -the context one may infer to have been the water-colour diptych of -_Paolo and Francesco da Rimini_. In August of the same year he wrote -that he was at work on a _Hamlet and Ophelia_, "deeply symbolical of -course," and predestined for the folio which Millais had presented, -and which was still supposed to be in circulation among the members -of a select sketching club. About the same time he submitted to -Ruskin two designs for _The Passover_, one of which was chosen to be -begun at once, while Ruskin also commissioned seven drawings from the -"Purgatorio," of which one certainly, _Matilda gathering Flowers_, -was very shortly put in hand. None of these undertakings saw the -light for at least another year; the _Hamlet_ not for four or five. -The _Matilda_ was finished first and delivered in September 1855, and -on the 2nd December Madox Brown records in his diary, _apropos_ Miss -Siddal being stranded in Paris without money, "Gabriel, who saw that -none of the drawings on the easel could be completed before long, -began a fresh one, _Francesca da Rimini_, in _three compartments_; -worked day and night, finished it in a week, got thirty-five guineas -for it from Ruskin, and started off to relieve them." This was the -earliest version of a subject that Rossetti returned to more than -once, representing in one compartment the lover's kiss, and in the -second their two souls floating clasped together in Hell through a -rain of pale sulphurous flames. Between the compartments are two -figures meant for Dante and Virgil, with the words "O Lasso!" Within -the same period, viz., by October, 1855, another Dante subject, _The -Vision of Rachel and Leah_, was taken up and completed. - -_The Passover_ drawing, just referred to, is a small, unfinished -water-colour, in which once more Rossetti has treated the domestic -life of the Holy Family with a reverent freedom from conventionality, -such as Millais used in _The Carpenter's Shop_ and Holman Hunt in the -_Finding of Christ in the Temple_. _The Passover_ was one of -Rossetti's very earliest designs, having been sketched out first as -far back as 1849; it was the one selected for a memorial window to -Rossetti in the church at Birchington-on-Sea, where he was buried. - -Other drawings which are dated, or were finished by 1855, though they -may have been in hand considerably earlier, are _The Nativity_, _La -Belle Dame sans Mercy_, and the _Annunciation_, all water-colours. -In the last-named the Virgin (done from Miss Siddal) is represented -washing clothes in a stream, whilst the angel Gabriel stands by with -folded wings, between two trees: both are in white, and the picture -shows a strong effect of sunlight. - -In addition to the foregoing there must be chronicled under 1855 the -first of the important and beautiful designs for woodcuts, which in -the absence of his pictures were almost the only means afforded to -the public for many years of judging of Rossetti's work. This is a -drawing for a poem in William Allingham's "Day and Night Songs," -called _The Maids of Elfen-Mere_. Allingham was employed in the -Customs in Ireland, and at the period in question, and for some years -after, Rossetti and he were very intimate, corresponding freely and -vivaciously on all topics concerning their circle. - -In 1856 were completed the water-colours of _Dante's Dream_ and _Fra -Pace_. Mr. William Morris, who acquired several early water-colours -by Rossetti, was apparently the first purchaser of _Fra Pace_. The -picture represents a kneeling monk busy illuminating at a desk. He -has worked so long that the cat has coiled itself up asleep upon his -trailing robe. A youthful acolyte is tickling it with a straw in -order to beguile the tedium of the long silence. The drawing is -somewhat archaic in character and stiff in design, but it is -eminently characteristic of Rossetti, full of quaint conceits and -humour, from the row of little bottles that hold the good man's -pigments to the dead mouse he is copying and the split pomegranate -that lies uneaten by his side. - -The _Dante's Dream_ above mentioned is the first, and in certain -points most beautiful, version of the subject which afterwards served -for Rossetti's largest picture, the one in the Walker Art Gallery at -Liverpool. The water-colour is somewhat squarer in shape, but the -composition and pose of the five figures are very much the same as in -the large Liverpool picture. - -In March, 1856, Rossetti secured an important commission--judged by -the standard of his current work and prices--to paint a reredos in -three compartments for the cathedral of Llandaff, which John P. -Seddon was engaged in restoring. The subject he chose for this -undertaking was _The Seed of David_, showing in the centre-piece the -infant Christ on his mother's knee being adored by a shepherd and a -king, and on either side a single figure of David, first as a -shepherd-boy slinging the stone for Goliath, and secondly as a king -harping to the glory of God. The triptych was not completely -finished until 1864, and after that was considerably retouched in -1869, when Rossetti went down to Llandaff for the purpose. - -The year 1856 (or, if we take the date of publication, 1857) deserves -commemoration as the year of the famous Moxon "Tennyson," for which -Rossetti designed no fewer than five illustrations. - -Separate pen-and-ink drawings exist for most, if not for all, of -these Tennyson designs, and water-colours were afterwards painted -from three of them. - -In point of number and interest the productions of 1857 are -remarkable. It was the year of the Oxford frescoes, for one thing, -though these dragged on till 1859; and it was the year of a charming -little series of water-colours, which were acquired one after the -other by Rossetti's newly-made acquaintance, William Morris, who, -some time later, being in want of capital for his own business, sold -them in a batch to their late possessor, Mr. George Rae. These -comprise: - -(1) The _Damsel of the Sanc Grael_, robed in green, holding a -long-stemmed cup in her hand. - -(2) _The Death of Breuse sans Pitié_, one of the crudest and least -successful of Rossetti's water-colours. - -(3) _The Chapel before the Lists_, a scene suggested by Malory of a -lady helping to arm a kneeling knight, her long white head-dress, as -she stoops to kiss him, falling like a mantle down her blue dress. -Upon the pointed shield of the knight is a figure of a maiden in -distress. Beyond the chapel is a tented field, and knights going -forth to joust. - -(4) _The Tune of Seven Towers_, a quaint little scene, very -characteristic of Rossetti's fertility and originality of invention. -A lady in red with mediaeval head-dress is sitting in a high oaken -chair, which above towers up into a sort of belfry, and is playing -upon a musical instrument which also forms part of the chair. A man -in green doublet, with long boots, sits sideways on a stool close by -watching her, and a second lady stands mournfully behind. A banner -hangs down at the right from a pole which cuts the picture diagonally -in half. - -(5) _The Blue Closet_, illustrated and described elsewhere. - -[Illustration: THE BLUE CLOSET.] - -_The Wedding of St. George_, in the same collection, belongs to this -year, but was not acquired from Mr. Morris. The old story of St. -George and the Dragon had a powerful influence upon the romantic -school to which Rossetti belonged. Burne-Jones's variations upon it -are well known, and Rossetti also, besides treating it as a whole in -a series of designs for stained glass windows, painted St. George -more than once at typical stages of the adventure. In this earliest -version he is resting from his feat, clad in armour, with a gorgeous -surcoat, whilst the princess kneels and leans her head upon his -breast, cutting off a long dark lock of hair which she has bound upon -the crest of his helmet. The dragon's head, a monstrous object, -stands grotesquely in one corner in a box with ropes attached for -drawing it along. In the background is a hedge of flowers and -attendant angels playing on bells. - -The artistic and romantic impulses stirring in England at the -midpoint of the century had, as we have seen, produced one notable -movement in the shape of the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood." Five or -six years later they gave rise to another, not less important, and -shortly afterwards a fusion of the two took place. The second of -these "Brotherhoods"--the word was actually adopted for a time--had -its origin at Exeter College, Oxford, in the personalities of William -Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and resolved itself at first, like its -forerunner, into a "crusade and holy warfare against the age," with -an added religious tinge which was hardly visible in the other. The -Oxford group, like the "P.R.B.," published a magazine to illustrate, -not to preach, their principles, and had as a tangible link with -Rossetti the same warm appreciation of the beauties of the Arthurian -legend first introduced to their notice by Burne-Jones. - -In the Christmas vacation of 1855 Burne-Jones came up to London, and -after attending a meeting of the Working Men's College in order to -see Rossetti, whom he and Morris had already begun to worship, he was -introduced to him at Vernon Lushington's rooms in Doctors' Commons. -The next day he visited Rossetti in his studio at Blackfriars, and -saw him working on _Fra Pace_. Thus was laid the foundation of an -alliance which even more potently than the "P.R.B." has changed the -face of art in England, and which resulted in the formation of a -group that for combined poetic, literary, and artistic power is -unapproached in the history of the nation. Incidentally, it was this -visit that determined Burne-Jones--hankering after art, but -predestined for the Church--to become a painter; and no one can fail -to be struck with the evidence of Rossetti's influence upon his early -work. - -To the "Oxford and Cambridge Magazine," William Morris's organ, which -ran for the twelve months of 1856, Rossetti contributed "The Burden -of Nineveh," "The Blessed Damozel" (a little altered from the "Germ" -version), and "The Staff and Scrip." - -By the end of 1856 Burne-Jones and Morris had left Oxford and were -settled in London, occupying the rooms at 17, Red Lion Square, which -had formerly served as a studio for Rossetti and Deverell. Both were -under the spell of Rossetti's influence. The _ménage_ at Red Lion -Square lasted till 1859, and was a rallying point for all members of -the circle. "From the incidents that occurred or were invented -there," says Mr. Mackail, "a sort of Book of the Hundred Merry Tales -gradually was formed, of which Morris was the central figure." The -rooms were "the quaintest in all London," as Burne-Jones wrote, "hung -with brasses of old knights and drawings of Albert Dürer"; and in -order to furnish them recourse had to be had to invention. A local -joiner was engaged to manufacture furniture from Morris's own -designs: "intensely mediaeval" was Rossetti's description of it to a -friend, "tables and chairs like incubi and succubi." Next came the -idea of painting pictures on walls, cupboards, and doors, about the -time that Morris was planning to build himself at Upton, in the -neighbourhood of Bexley Heath, a "palace of art" the like of which -should never have been seen. In the general enthusiasm Rossetti set -to and designed a pair of panels for a cabinet--the subject of his -early pen-and-ink drawing, _The Salutation of Beatrice_, representing -in two compartments Dante meeting Beatrice in Florence, and again in -Paradise. - -At the risk of repetition, one may mention once more a side of the -movement which is apt to be overshadowed by its far-reaching results; -namely, the light-heartedness and sense of fun which prevailed -amongst this band of artistic pioneers. There was nothing of the -mawkish affectation which discredited the aesthetes who came after. -When Burne-Jones was down at Upton, helping to decorate the Red House -in 1860, Rossetti wrote to a mutual friend: "I wish you were in town, -to see you sometimes, for I literally see no one now except Madox -Brown pretty often, and even he is gone to join Morris, who is out of -reach at Upton, and with them is married Jones painting the inner -walls of the house that Top built (Morris was always called 'Topsy' -by his friends). But as for the neighbours, when they see men -pourtrayed by Jones upon the walls, the images of the Chaldeans -pourtrayed (by _him!_) in Extract Vermilion, exceeding all -probability in dyed attire upon their heads, after the manner of no -Babylonians of any Chaldea, the land of anyone's nativity--as soon as -they see them with their eyes, shall they not account him doting and -send messengers into Colney Hatch?" - -During the long vacation of 1857 Rossetti went up to Oxford with -Morris on a visit to the architect, Benjamin Woodward, who was at -work upon a debating hall for the Union Society, and seeing an -opportunity for mural decoration of a kind never previously attempted -in England in the new hall of the Union, he became fired with an idea -for carrying it out. The hall was a long building, with an apse at -each end, and a gallery running all the way round. In this gallery -were bookcases, and above the cases were ten semi-circular bays, each -pierced with a pair of circular windows. These bays, it was -suggested, should be painted with scenes from the Arthurian legend, -and the roof, as part of the general scheme, was to be decorated in a -harmonious manner. A building committee was in charge of the -operations, and without any clear idea of its responsibilities or -restrictions it fell in with Rossetti's proposal that he and a select -band of artists should execute the work gratuitously, but that the -Union should defray their expenses at Oxford and should provide all -necessary materials. The time estimated for completing the work was -six weeks. Seven artists, including Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and -Morris, were enlisted without much trouble, the remaining four being -Arthur Hughes, Spencer Stanhope, Val Prinsep, and J. Hungerford -Pollen, who had already won much credit from his painting of the roof -in Merton College Chapel. Rossetti took as subjects for two bays -_Launcelot asleep before the Chapel of the Sanc Grael_ and _Sir -Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival receiving the Sanc Grael_. The -others chose similar themes, but in a short time it was found that -the work in hand was considerably more than had been anticipated, -though abundant evidence remains of the enthusiasm which was put into -it. - -Unfortunately the delight was not to be of long duration. Almost -before the pictures were finished they had begun to decay, the effect -of tempera laid direct upon a new brick wall, with no preparation but -a layer of whitewash, being quite inadequate to resist the English -climate. Several of the designs were never completed. In 1859 some -arrangement was entered into by the Union with a Mr. Riviere to fill -the three blank compartments; and after that the ill-fated -undertaking, on which so much pains and so much skill had been spent, -gradually faded away and resolved itself into what it is to-day, a -dingy blur of colours in which may be distinguished the occasional -vague form of an armoured limb or a patch of flowery background. - -Rossetti's connection with Oxford, and its intercalation in his work, -does not end with the Union paintings. It was destined to furnish -him with a more lasting influence--a face that to the end of his life -haunted his pictures with an austere and solemn beauty, dominating -and transforming all other kinds, so as even to give rise to the -suggestion--a shallow and ignorant one, it is true--that he painted -but one type of face. It was at the theatre, one night in the summer -of 1857, that Rossetti and Burne-Jones found themselves sitting near -two youthful Misses Burden, daughters of an Oxford resident, the -elder of whom, by her striking features and wealth of dark wavy hair, -appealed so forcibly to Rossetti's painter eye that he obtained an -introduction in order to ask for sittings. A pen-and-ink head called -_Queen Guenevere_, now in the National Gallery at Dublin, and -evidently intended to replace the earlier studies done for _Launcelot -at the Shrine_, was one of the first fruits of this acquaintance, -which, for the rest, does not seem to have become really prolific of -results until several years later, when Rossetti's wife was dead. In -the meantime William Morris, whose admiration went even further, had -married Miss Burden, and the casual relationship of painter and -sitter which existed between her and Rossetti deepened into a -friendship, in which Miss Siddal participated, both up to and after -her marriage. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -WORK FROM 1858 TO 1862 - -The year 1858, while the Oxford affair was still in train, saw the -completion of two pen-and-ink drawings which had been in hand a long -time. These were _Hamlet and Ophelia_ and _Mary Magdalene at the -Door of Simon the Pharisee_. - -[Illustration: MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE.] - -The drawing of _Mary Magdalene_, perhaps the most perfect of all -Rossetti's early works, was begun at least by 1853, and continued to -occupy his thoughts in one form or another for many years. Rossetti -wrote a sonnet for the picture, which is found in his first volume, -called "Poems." - -Another subject finished in 1858 was _Mary in the House of John_. -The scene is at late twilight, or in an eastern night, the red glow -of the sky casting a purple light over the clustered dwellings of -Nazareth, with deep blue hills beyond. In the interior of the room -are Mary and St. John, the latter seated in shadow, engaged in -striking light from a flint; whilst Mary, standing before the tall -window, fills a hanging lamp from a jar of oil. - -Another important item to be recorded under 1858 is a water-colour -called _Before the Battle_, painted for Rossetti's American friend, -Professor Norton, of Harvard. - -The most important work of 1859 is a highly-finished little head in -oils, called _Bocca Baciata_, which was bought by the late Mr. Boyce. -The model for this was Miss Fanny Cornforth, afterwards Mrs. Schott, -whose florid type of beauty reappears in a series of sensuous -pictures of the kind that Rossetti began to paint after -1862--_Aurelia_ (_Fazio's Mistress_), _The Blue Bower_, _The Lady at -her Toilet_, _Lilith_, and_ The Lady of the Fan_. These pictures, -and numerous portraits in oil and water-colour, give a sufficiently -recognizable idea of this model, who exercised almost as remarkable -an influence over Rossetti's life as over his art. - -_Bonifazio's Mistress_, a specially charming little water-colour, was -painted in 1860. It shows a lady (dressed in the same brightly -be-ribanded flounces as Lucretia Borgia wears in the little 1851 -group) who has been sitting to her lover, a painter, when suddenly -she has fallen back in her chair, dead. - -The connection of this subject with the poet, Bonifazio (or Fazio) -degli Uberti is entirely fanciful. There can be little doubt that it -was intended to illustrate Rossetti's own story of "St. Agnes of -Intercession." _Bonifazio's Mistress_ has no connection whatever -either in subject or composition with the oil painting of the same -name done in 1863, and afterwards re-named _Aurelia_. The latter is -simply a three-quarter length figure of a lady plaiting her hair -before a toilet glass. - -This (1860) was the year of Rossetti's marriage, as has already been -stated, and in June he was at Paris on his honeymoon. While there he -executed two pen-and-ink drawings, one of which was the design of -_How they met Themselves_, done to replace the earlier version of -1851, which had been lost. The other represents a scene from -Boswell's "Life of Johnson," a curious source of inspiration for -Rossetti, rendered more remarkable from the fact that the incident -chosen is of a humorous and spicy character. Dr. Maxwell told the -story how two young women from Staffordshire had come up to town to -consult Johnson about Methodism, in which they were much interested. -"Come," said he, "you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the -Mitre, and we will talk over that subject"; which they did, and after -dinner he took one of them on his knee, and fondled her for -half-an-hour together. - -In 1861 Rossetti's translations from the Italian poets were at last -published, together with the "Vita Nuova." Rossetti thought out a -very charming design of two lovers kissing in a rose-garden, which he -proposed to etch on copper for the title-page. The plate, however, -displeased him, and he destroyed it. The central idea of this design -reappears in _Love's Greeting_, a panel designed for the Red House, -and in a water-colour of 1864 inscribed _Roman de la Rose_, in which -Love appears overshadowing the kissing pair with his wings. - -In 1861 was painted, on a little panel, 10 by 8 inches, a portrait of -Mrs. Rossetti, called _Regina Cordium_ or _The Queen of Hearts_, -showing just the head and bare shoulders, on a gold ground, behind a -parapet on which rests one hand holding a purple pansy. A more -important outcome of the year is the fine composition known as -_Cassandra_. The subject is a scene on the walls of Troy just before -Hector's last battle. Rossetti wrote two sonnets for the drawing -which will be found in his volume of "Poems." - -About this time (1861-1862) the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner -and Co. was just being started, with William Morris, Rossetti, -Faulkner, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Webb, and others as the active -promoters of a venture which was to reform the arts of decoration and -furniture making. Tapestry, furniture, wallpapers, stained glass, -painted panels, and later on carpet-weaving and dyeing, were among -the industries to which this band of highly original artists and -designers turned their attention. The Anglo-Catholic movement and -the demand for decoration of an aesthetic and sensuous kind gave the -new firm plenty to do, amongst their first commissions being the -embellishment of two new churches then being built by Bodley, St. -Martin's on the Hill, Scarborough, and St. Michael's at Brighton. -For the former Rossetti executed a design for two pulpit panels and -several windows, achieving from the very first a mastery over this -branch of art which few designers have surpassed. It is -characteristic of his original mind that he went right back to the -fundamental principles of _vitraux_, paying no attention whatever to -the elaborations which had grown round them, and recognizing that a -picture which was transparent, that is, seen by transmitted light, -must be conceived in flat tones and not made to give the illusion of -shading, as can be done in the case of a surface from which the light -is reflected. - -The _Paolo and Francesca_ water-colour is generally attributed to the -year 1861, although no particular authority exists for this beyond an -auctioneer's catalogue. This beautiful little water-colour -represents the first compartment of the double subject. In it Paolo -and Francesca are seated before a window bearing the arms of -Malatesta. Outside is a bright and sunny landscape. The lovers have -stopped in the midst of their reading to give the fatal kiss that -sealed their doom. - -In 1861 or 1862 Rossetti designed two woodcuts for his sister -Christina's "Goblin Market," published by Messrs. Macmillan. In 1865 -he drew two more designs for "The Prince's Progress." The covers for -these two little volumes, as well as for his own when they appeared, -were designed by Rossetti, and are as original and effective and -tasteful as his decorative work invariably was. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -SETTLING AT CHELSEA. WORK, 1863 TO 1874 - -After the tragic death of his wife, on February 11th, 1862, Rossetti -could no longer bear to occupy the rooms they had inhabited at -Chatham Place, and began to seek for others. In the meantime he took -lodgings for a few months in a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He had -a fancy for getting away from the crowd of London, and yet for being -near the river, which caused him to examine one or two old houses in -the then by no means fashionable neighbourhoods of Hammersmith and -Chelsea. He finally decided in favour of No. 16, Cheyne Walk, a -house which from some traditional association with Queen Elizabeth -became known as Tudor House and is now called Queen's House. It is -also said to have been described by Thackeray in "Esmond" as the home -of the old Countess of Chelsey. Here he started a joint _ménage_ -with Mr. Swinburne, Mr. George Meredith, and (at casual intervals) -his brother. Mr. Meredith's subtenancy was not of long duration; in -point of fact he never really occupied his rooms. But Mr. Swinburne -remained long enough to have shared very considerably the traditions -which soon grew up round Tudor House, and whilst there wrote the most -famous of his dramas, "Atalanta in Calydon," as well as many of the -"Poems and Ballads," and a portion of "Chastelard." The gloom which -at first had threatened Rossetti gradually wore away before the -robustness of his nature; settling into and furnishing his house on -new, and at that time practically unheard-of, principles, afforded -abundant distraction; and for some years, until his own illness -intervened, Rossetti played the genial and charming host to many old -friends of his intimate group, and to an increasing circle of new -ones who were attracted by sympathy or by the growing glamour of his -name. - -One of the charms of the house at Chelsea was its long garden, more -than an acre in extent, with an avenue of trees on to which the -studio looked. As time went on this garden became tenanted with a -miscellaneous assortment of birds and animals, round which a -veritable saga of anecdote has gathered. These, with his affection -for bric-à-brac, his spontaneous generosity, his ever-ready wit, his -love of good stories, and his endless flow of _vers d'esprit_, form a -contrast to the somewhat sombre atmosphere in which he sought his -inspirations, and in which, owing to the seclusion of his later -years, he was popularly supposed to live. - -To resume the thread of Rossetti's work, the well-known picture of -_Beata Beatrix_, now in the National Collection, bears date 1863, but -was only partially painted in that year, the completion being long -delayed. One reason for the difficulty may have been that Rossetti -desired to make this picture a living memorial of his wife, and that -no regular studies of the face had been done for it. What he felt -about it we may gather from the fact that for some years he refused -to send out a replica, even when replicas had become a regular and -lucrative form of business. In the end, however, he was prevailed -upon to paint more than one repetition of the subject, none however -equal in quality to the original. - -To 1863 belongs a small oil picture called _Helen of Troy_, a -full-faced study, head and shoulders only, of a rather pretty model, -with masses of rippling yellow hair. The last of the _St. George_ -subjects also belongs to this year, and represents St. George in the -act of slaying the dragon; a water-colour version of one of the -incidents in a series designed for windows, but treated a little -differently. Next come three small subjects: _Belcolore_, a very -finely painted head of a girl biting a rosebud; _Brimfull_, a -water-colour sketch of a lady stooping to sip from a glass; and -thirdly, a picture called _A Lady in Yellow_, belonging to Mr. -Beresford Heaton. We are now entering upon the period when Rossetti -ceased to paint small heads and began to devote himself to larger -single figure subjects, lavishing upon them the wealth of his fine -imagination, and surrounding them with quaint and beautiful -accessories such as he alone knew how to select. The first picture -of this type, and in point of execution one of the very finest, is -_Fazio's Mistress_, a small oil painting dated 1863, but considerably -altered ten years later, when Rossetti renamed it _Aurelia_. - -The year 1864 contains two or three more prominent examples of -Rossetti's attraction towards a luxuriant and seductive type of -feminine beauty. The most important is _Lady Lilith_, which embodies -perhaps the fullest expression of Rossetti's power in this direction. -Adam's mythical first wife is shown as a beautiful woman leaning back -on a couch combing her long fair hair, while with cold -dispassionateness she surveys her features in a hand mirror. "Body's -Beauty" Rossetti called the picture afterwards, contrasting it with -his conception of "Soul's Beauty," the _Sibylla Palmifera_ of 1866-70. - -Still in the same vein--of "Women and Flowers"--is the next great -picture begun in 1864, the _Venus Verticordia_. The principal -version of this, an oil painting, was not finished until some time in -1868. The earliest in point of date is a little water-colour -commissioned as a replica, which was delivered during the year. The -picture represents the goddess of beauty undraped and standing in a -bower of clustering honeysuckle which hides her to the waist. In her -left hand she holds an apple, in her right a dart upon which is -poised a sulphur butterfly. Others are hovering round. Behind is -the grove of Venus, and a blue bird winging its way through space. - -The remaining productions of 1864 are all in water-colour. They -include _Morning Music_, _Monna Pomona_, _Sir Galahad_, _Sir Bors_, -and _Sir Percival_--belonging to Rossetti's earlier manner; _Roman de -la Rose_, and _The Madness of Ophelia_, a scene representing Laertes -leading Ophelia away, whilst the king and queen are looking on. - -In 1865 was painted the _Blue Bower_, a picture of the _Lilith_ -group, done from the _Lilith_ model, and representing in a setting of -gorgeous blue and green harmonies a woman playing upon a dulcimer. -_The Merciless Lady_, which was painted in 1865, is a return to -Rossetti's early romantic compositions, and is a particularly -charming specimen. Nor was it his only water-colour of this year, -though indisputably the best. For Mr. Craven he painted the subject -called _Washing Hands_--with the exception of _Dr. Johnson at the -Mitre_, his one experiment in (eighteenth century costume. - -Another called _A Fight for a Woman_, is one of Rossetti's most -spirited drawings. In point of invention this design goes back to -very early days, as is proved by the existence of tentative sketches -dating from about 1853. To the same date belongs the oil painting -called originally _Bella e Buona_, but renamed by Rossetti _Il -Ramoscello_ in 1873, when it was taken back by him for retouching. -It is a half-length figure, dressed in slate green, and holding an -acorn branch. - -[Illustration: THE BELOVED.] - -We now come to one of the most beautiful pictures, if not the most -beautiful, that Rossetti ever painted--_The Beloved_. No one who has -not seen it, with a warm sunlight bringing out its colour, can form -the most remote conception of its brilliance. "I mean it to be like -jewels," wrote Rossetti to its late owner, Mr. Rae; and jewel-like it -flashes. The picture itself is described in a later chapter, amongst -those selected for illustration. - -In 1866, the year in which the _Beloved_ was finished, Rossetti -started upon a second great picture of the same type, the _Monna -Vanna_, a three-quarter length figure draped in magnificent gold and -white brocade, and toying with a large fan. This was commissioned by -Mr. Rae, as was also _Sibylla Palmifera_, the third of the series, -begun about the same time but not completed until 1870. Rossetti's -sonnet entitled "Soul's Beauty" describes the subject--a Sibyl seated -on a throne and bearing a branch of palm. - -The record of 1866 closes with an oil portrait of the painter's -mother, towards whom at all periods of his life his devotion was -exemplary; a large crayon drawing of Christina Rossetti, with her -thoughtful face resting on her hands; and two designs for her second -volume of poems, "The Prince's Progress." - -In 1867 Rossetti painted the oil _Christmas Carol_ for Mr. Rae, an -entirely different subject from the early water-colour. This is a -half-length figure of a girl, draped in a gold and purple robe of -Eastern stuff, and playing upon a species of lute. Two small but -pretty pictures of the same date are _Joli Cœur_ and _Monna Rosa_. -The first represents a coy-looking maiden fingering her necklace, -whilst _Monna Rosa_ is chiefly a study in beautiful colour, -representing a lady in a dress of pale emerald green, with golden -fruit worked upon it, plucking a rose from a tree planted in a blue -jar. - -The next item of 1867 is the exquisite _Loving Cup_. The subject is -a lady raising a golden cup to her lips, and standing against a -background of fair embroidered linen, surmounted by a row of heavy -brazen plates. - -The year 1868 was cut into by Rossetti's breakdown in health and -sudden anxiety about his eyesight. Nevertheless, he painted the -portrait of Mrs. William Morris, in a blue dress, seated at a table -before a glass of flowers, which many competent judges regard as one -of his very finest pictures, and which was the prelude to that long -series of noble canvases by which he has become best known to the -public. Mrs. Morris has lent her portrait to the National Gallery, -where it hangs (at Millbank) beside the _Ecce Ancilla_ and the _Beata -Beatrix_. Other productions of the same year, which closes the -period of Rossetti's best work, were _Bionda del Balcone_; _Aurea -Catena_, a fine drawing of Mrs. Morris; two studies for a future -picture, _La Pia_, and some small replicas of no particular -importance. - -The insomnia which began to attack Rossetti in his thirty-ninth year, -and which was the indirect cause of his subsequent breakdown, led him -in 1869 to drop work for a time and to take a holiday at Penkill -Castle in Ayrshire, the residence of an old friend. The visit is of -interest, because it was not until this occasion that he gave a -serious thought to the publishing of his early poems, some of which -were still going about in manuscript in a more or less finished -condition, though others were buried in his wife's grave. As a -relief from the strain of painting, moreover, he began to write -again. His first idea was to have the poems, such of them as he -could collect or recall from memory, set up in type to keep by him as -a nucleus for a possible volume; gradually, however, the idea of -publishing outright grew or was forced upon him; and the last -obstacle to this, the loss of so much of his early work, was finally -removed one day in October, 1869, when, after a consent wrung from -him very reluctantly, the grave was opened, and the manuscript poems -recovered. In 1870 the book appeared, having as publisher Mr. F S. -Ellis, of King Street, Covent Garden. The poems proved an immediate -and lucrative success, and were favourably reviewed except for the -single attack made upon them in a pseudonymous article by the late -Mr. Buchanan. The effect of even one attack, however, and it was -admittedly a very unfair and bitter attack, on a man of Rossetti's -temperament, suffering from nervous fancies, and troubled by want of -sleep, was disastrous. He viewed as a great conspiracy against him -what other men, in sounder health, would have been able to disregard, -and the effect was unhappily permanent. He had begun to acquire the -habit of taking chloral as a cure for sleeplessness, without knowing, -what is well known now, its lamentable after-effect, and for a short -time, if one may accept his brother's judgment, Rossetti was hardly -to be regarded as sane. A severe breakdown caused him to be removed -once more to Scotland, where after a complete rest he was enabled to -resume painting, and in September, 1872, he joined with Mr. and Mrs. -Morris in taking the old Elizabethan Manor House of Kelmscott, on the -borders of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. His work here consisted -to a large extent in repainting many of his old pictures, which he -had sent to him for the purpose. In this way he worked upon the -_Lilith_, _Beloved_, _Monna Vanna_, and other important canvases, -including even the little early _Ecce Ancilla Domini_. Rossetti left -Kelmscott in July, 1874, and returned to London; and that was the end -of his connection with the quiet Gloucestershire retreat, which -thenceforward became associated solely with the life of William -Morris. - -During the years 1869 to 1871, and the two following which Rossetti -spent at Kelmscott, he was at work on a number of fairly important -new canvases in addition to the retouching of old ones. A sprinkling -of crayons and small pictures also has to be mentioned. These -include the _Rosa Triplex_, a study of three heads from one sitter, -now in the Tate Gallery, and _Penelope_, a crayon drawing of a seated -figure, which is unique in the respect that it was done from a -favourite model of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. - -Throughout the year 1870, with one or two exceptions, Mrs. Morris's -is the face which figures in Rossetti's work. It is to be seen, for -instance, in the fine picture called _Mariana_, really a first -attempt at the portrait in the Tate Gallery lent by Mrs. Morris, to -which a second figure was subsequently added. - -In 1871 he painted the picture of _Pandora_, of which Mr. Swinburne -says, in his "Essays and Studies," that "it is amongst the mightiest -of all Rossetti's works in its God-like terror and imperial trouble -of beauty." The figure is clad in a long robe of Venetian red, and -is holding the fateful casket, from which issues a red smoke, curling -all round into clustering shapes, like flame-winged seraph curses. -_Water-willow_, a little quarter-length figure with a river landscape -behind, done in the same year, is interesting from the fact that it -is a portrait of Mrs. Morris, and that the view represents Kelmscott. - -We now come to the picture of _Dante's Dream_, begun in 1870 and -finished towards the close of 1871, Rossetti's most important work in -the opinion of many people, and considerably his largest. The -subject is that of the little early water-colour painted in 1856, -namely the vision related by Dante as having come to him of Beatrice -lying in death, and the angels bearing upward her soul in the form of -"an exceedingly white cloud." The picture is more fully described -elsewhere. - -[Illustration: MARIANA.] - -Impressive as _Dante's Dream_ may be, it is not to be classed on all -grounds with Rossetti's finest work. Yet it has been the object of -boundless admiration. It has even been said that if no other of -Rossetti's works survived but this and the _Beata Beatrix_, they -alone would be enough to ensure him a place among the few great -artists of the world. - -The next great subject in point of date, namely _Proserpine_, has a -complicated history attached to it. Rossetti began the picture upon -canvas four times in 1872, with ill-success. He took it up again in -1873 and painted a fine version which was spoilt in straining. This -was replaced in the same year by a second fine one which arrived at -its destination damaged by an accident in transit. A third large -picture had therefore to be painted in 1874, which still exists, and -finally the damaged picture was patched and partially repainted in -1877, which is the date it bears in the corner. This is the finest -and best known version, and is the one of which an autotype -reproduction has been published. There are sundry other replicas and -crayon studies of the subject which have not been mentioned, but of -the earlier attempts nothing now seems to be left in the form of -pictures, the canvases having been cut down into the form of single -heads. In all these pictures the subject is the same. The ravished -bride of Pluto is seen standing in a corridor of Hades, lighted by a -bluish subterranean light, and holding in one hand the pomegranate of -which she ate one fatal seed that bound her for ever to her destiny. -In none of the pictures done from Mrs. Morris do we find so -appropriate the distant air of melancholy with which the painter -contrived to invest her features. - -Of the other pictures painted at Kelmscott perhaps the most -successful is _Veronica Veronese_, supposed to be taken from a -passage in the letters of Girolamo Ridolfi, which describes how a -lady, after listening to the notes of a bird, tries to commit them to -paper, and finally to reproduce them on her violin. In the picture -the Lady Veronica is robed in a rich gown of Rossetti's favourite -green, with yellow daffodils in a glass beside her. The bird, a -canary, is perched on a cage above her. She sits at a cabinet, on -which is a sheet with the musical notes she has been writing down; -and listening with dreamy blue eyes to the bird's song she lets her -thumb wander over the strings of the violin suspended on the wall -before her. - -Before leaving the year 1872 there is a minor but interesting episode -to record. In this year Rossetti took up an old background of trees -and foliage which he had painted in 1850, in his Pre-Raphaelite days, -when studying with Holman Hunt at Knole Park, near Sevenoaks. -Nothing had ever been done to it since; but now Rossetti painted in -two women playing instruments and a group of dancing figures, for -which very charming crayon studies were made, and called it _The -Bower Meadow_. This interesting combination of early and late styles -now belongs to Sir J. D. Milburn, of Newcastle. - -_La Ghirlandata_, the next great oil picture by Rossetti, is dated -1873, and is one of those which has already crossed the Atlantic to -the bourne whence works of art but seldom return. The picture -represents a lady playing upon a garlanded harp, in the midst of a -forest clearing, where angel faces peer down upon her, and mystical -blue birds cleave the air. The whole is a subtle blending of subdued -colour, where blue and green strive for the mastery. Beautiful as it -is in these respects, _La Ghirlandata_ lacks the invention and the -interest of Rossetti's more vigorous early work. - -_The Damsel of the Sanc Grael_, painted in 1874 for Mr. Rae, is a -very different picture from the little water-colour of 1856-7. There -was a simplicity and primitiveness about the latter which accorded -well with the mediaeval sanctity surrounding the subject. When -Rossetti came to paint the picture again in his later manner, he -represented the austere damsel of the holy mysteries as a handsome -girl with flowing chestnut hair, bright lips, and languishing eyes, -sumptuously robed in a red gown with a heavily-flowered mantle. In -painting this picture Rossetti probably did not seek much beyond mere -beauty of form and decoration, in the attainment of which he has -succeeded perfectly; and the same may be said in part of a -better-known production of the same year, the much-praised _Roman -Widow_, which represents a lady seated by the marble tomb of her -husband. A large unfinished canvas, painted simply in grisaille, -called _The Boat of Love_, was begun at this time but abandoned in -1881. After Rossetti's death it was bought for the Birmingham -Corporation Art Gallery, where it is now exhibited. It may be -mentioned that the Birmingham Gallery possesses an unequalled -collection of Rossetti's drawings, recently acquired (1906) through -the munificence of two or three local donors. - -One other subject dated 1874 is intimately bound up with Kelmscott. -This is an oil picture called by a variety of names--_Marigolds_, -_Fleurs de Marie_, _The Gardener's Daughter_, etc., but representing -in actual fact a young girl standing in a room, and reaching up to -place a mass of yellow marigolds and lilies in a flower vase upon a -high cabinet of inlaid wood. The model is said to have been the -gardener's daughter at Kelmscott, not that the detail signifies, -except as connecting the picture with the place. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -CLOSE OF THE RECORD. 1874-1882 - -One of the first incidents to be recorded after Rossetti's return to -London in 1874 was the dissolution of the partnership of Morris, -Marshall, Faulkner and Co., and the re-construction of the firm under -the sole management of William Morris. The dissolution was not -effected without some unpleasantness, resulting in the estrangement -of Morris and Brown. Morris and Rossetti never actually quarrelled; -but from 1874 onwards the two men seldom saw each other, Rossetti's -recluse habits of life being possibly responsible to some extent for -the severance. - -The latter part of 1875 and the first half of 1876 Rossetti spent at -Bognor, and after that he visited the Cowper-Temples (afterwards Lord -and Lady Mount Temple) at Broadlands in Hampshire, being then engaged -upon his picture of _The Blessed Damozel_. - -In 1877 he had a very severe physical illness, due to an uraemic -affection which had been set up in 1872, and which eventually was the -active cause of his death. He was removed to a little cottage near -Herne Bay, and at one time gave up all hope of resuming his -profession. "At last," says Mr. William Rossetti, "the power and the -determination returned simultaneously; he drew an admirable -crayon-group of our mother and sister, two others equally good of the -latter, and yet another of our mother. Weather had been favourable, -spirits and energy revived, and he came back to town nerved once more -for the battle of life and of art." The group of Mrs. and Miss -Rossetti is now in the National Portrait Gallery. - -After 1877 Rossetti seldom if ever went beyond the doors of No. 16, -Cheyne Walk, and as he suffered from fits of melancholy, and disliked -being alone, a few faithful friends formed the practice of coming to -visit him by turns. Mr. Theodore Watts was a more constant -attendant, and had a bed at his disposal. A good number of -acquaintances also frequented the house, some of them much more -intimate than others and dating back in their relations to about -1866. Among these may be mentioned the artists J. M. Whistler and -Alphonse Legros, Frederick Shields, F. A. Sandys and Fairfax Murray. - -In 1878, or thereabouts, Rossetti's devotion to poetry received a -fresh impulse, and he set himself assiduously to the production of -sonnets. It was not until 1880, however, that he began really to -compile materials for a new volume. In that year he wrote "The White -Ship," and in the year following "The King's Tragedy." Finally, by -March of 1881 the copy for "Ballads and Sonnets" was complete, and -was accepted by Messrs. Ellis and White on the same terms as the -first book. At the same time the latter, which was by now out of -print, underwent some material alterations and was re-published in a -new form. - -The pictures for 1875 include _La Bella Mano_, which represents a -lady washing her "beautiful hands" in a scalloped basin of brass; -also some of the studies for the _Blessed Damozel_, a finished -pen-and-ink study for a great picture of 1877, the _Astarte Syriaca_, -and a large pencil drawing called _The Question_ or _The Sphinx_. - -[Illustration: ASTARTE SYRIACA. (By permission of the Art Gallery -Committee of the Manchester Corporation.)] - -The following year was mainly devoted to the _Blessed Damozel_, an -attempt to realize on canvas Rossetti's early poem which first -appeared in "The Germ." The picture is a very fine one. Rossetti -filled in the background behind the stooping figure of the damozel -with a heavenly landscape, in which were countless pairs of embracing -lovers. In 1877 he added a predella representing the earthly lover -gazing up through space, and in 1879 he painted a replica, omitting -the background of lovers and substituting two angel heads rather -suggestive of those which occur in _La Ghirlandata_. - -The year 1877 contains but three items, two of which are, however, -the important oil-pictures _Astarte Syriaca_ and _The Sea-Spell_. -The third was a _Magdalen_ bearing the vase of spikenard. - -_Astarte Syriaca_ is a massive figure, with face and hair strongly -reminiscent of Mrs. Morris. It was bought at its first owner's death -for the Corporation Art Gallery of Manchester. - -The two finished items of 1878--for as the years advance the output -grows less and less--are _A Vision of Fiammetta_ and a water-colour -study of a head called _Bruna Brunelleschi_. _Fiammetta_ is a fine -and striking conception, representing on a life-size scale the lady -beloved by Boccaccio, to whom he addressed the sonnet which begins: -"Round her red garland and her golden hair, I saw a fire about -Fiammetta's head." The sitter for _Fiammetta_ was Mrs. W. J. -Stillman. - -_La Donna della Finestra_ was painted in 1879. This "Lady of the -Window," also known as "The Lady of Pity," is she who in Dante's -"Vita Nuova" is described as looking down upon the poet one day when -he was overcome with grief. The head is taken from Mrs. Morris, much -modified by the conventions which Rossetti at this time introduced -into all his faces. Not the least charming feature of the picture is -the clustering mass of beautifully painted fig-leaves growing up to -the balcony in which the lady sits. - -During 1880 and 1881 Rossetti was occupied with three large pictures, -_The Day Dream_, _The Salutation of Beatrice_, and _La Pia_; with -_Found_, which had been re-commissioned by Mr. William Graham; and -with several replicas, of which the most important was the smaller -_Dante's Dream_. - -_The Day Dream_ is a portrait of Mrs. Morris seated in the lower -branches of a sycamore tree. _La Pia_, the last original picture -painted by Rossetti, depicts the story of Pia de' Tolomei, told in -the fifth canto of the "Purgatorio." In Rossetti's canvas she is -seen, sitting forward in a window, gazing out over the poisonous -Maremma from the fortress where her husband had placed her to die. -_Found_, which was one of the first pictures Rossetti attempted, was -never completed. After Rossetti's death, as already mentioned, Sir -Edward Burne-Jones added a little work to it, and in this condition -it was taken over by the purchaser. It is now in America. - -With this we come to an end of Rossetti's work as a painter. It -remains briefly to close the record of his life. - -In September, 1881, Rossetti, accompanied by Mr. Hall Caine, -undertook an expedition to the lake district of Cumberland; but after -a month his health, which at first had appeared to benefit, became -alarmingly bad, and he returned hurriedly to London. After a partial -recovery from this illness his work was once more interrupted in -December by an attack of nervous paralysis, traceable to the effects -of the drug he had been taking. In February, 1882, he was taken to -Birchington-on-Sea, where a cottage had been placed at his disposal, -and here he died on the 10th of April. He was buried, quietly and -simply, in the little churchyard at Birchington, where a stone -monument has been erected by his family in the form of a Celtic cross -designed by Madox Brown. A memorial window embodying his own early -design of _The Passover_, adapted by Mr. Shields, was also set up in -the adjoining church. - -So passed away, in the fifty-fourth year of his life, one of the most -original artists of our time; I will not say one of the greatest -painters, for that would invite controversy as to points in which he -was, and knew himself to be, deficient. But as an artist, as one who -saw, and could interpret and depict beautiful things in a beautiful -way, there can be no two questions about Rossetti's greatness. Never -before has one man blended so perfectly the sister gifts of poetry -and painting that it was impossible to pronounce in which he was -superior. - -To complain, as some have done, of the mediaeval quality of his -subjects is foolish. As well complain that fairy tales are old. -Rossetti was mediaeval in his thoughts and tastes. Without any -affectation or straining for effect he lived his intellectual life in -a mystical, richly-coloured world of romantic knights and ladies. -These, and not the hedgerows or buttercups of to-day, were what came -to the surface in his creative moods. We have witnessed in these -latter years a great revival of romance, springing up in various ways -all over the continent of Europe. Of this revival in England, on the -side of pictorial art, Rossetti was the fountain head. The gentle -melancholy that pervades his work was derived from his namesake -Dante, to whom he was doubly allied by ties of birth and sentiment. -"He was moreover driven by something like the same unrelaxing stress -and fervour of temperament, so that even in middle age it seemed -scarcely less true to say of Rossetti than of Dante himself: - - 'Like flame within the naked hand, - His body bore his burning heart.'" - - -The direction of his influence, and of the Pre-Raphaelite movement -generally, has been worked out in a scholarly manner by Mr. Percy -Bate, in a book called "The English Pre-Raphaelite Painters," where -an attempt is made for the first time to trace the artistic lineage -of such diverse executants as Mr. Spencer Stanhope, Mr. Walter Crane, -Mr. Strudwick, Mrs. de Morgan, Mr. Byam Shaw, and others. On many of -these the influence of Burne-Jones is more evident than that of -Rossetti; but Burne-Jones himself owed much to Rossetti at the -critical period of his career. - -The subject of Rossetti's art is one that presents difficulty, on -account of the semi-privacy which surrounded it during the painter's -lifetime. The subject of Rossetti himself is more difficult still. -It has become a sort of fashion to decry the man, and to forget the -genius, among some who knew him only in his latest years--perhaps by -hearsay mainly. Stories of his want of consideration for others, his -egotism, his shabby treatment of patrons, his ungoverned temper, are -reeled off with a sort of zest, as though they summed up the man. -But in Rossetti good and bad were, as usual, inextricably mixed up, -with a strong preponderance towards the former. There were periods -when his brilliant, impulsive, magnetic personality swamped the most -audacious faults. For a man to stand out above his fellows is often -enough a signal for petty jealousy and stone-throwing. But in such -cases, one may remark, it is not always a David who prepares the -sling, nor is it always the giant who is on the side of the -Philistines. - - - - -OUR ILLUSTRATIONS - -Rossetti's record as a painter divides itself naturally into three -periods, beginning with a fairly numerous series of small romantic -water-colours, which to many people represent the most charming, if -not the most mature, feature of his work. The subjects for these -were selected largely from Browning, from the "Vita Nuova" of Dante, -and from the Arthurian legends, themes which appealed irresistibly to -his imaginative mind, and which formed a common link between the -members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the later group of -young Oxford men which included William Morris and Burne-Jones. -Practically the only oil pictures painted by Rossetti during this -period were the _Girlhood of Mary Virgin_, and the little _Ecce -Ancilla Domini_, now in the Tate Gallery at Millbank. This period -came to an end in 1862, with the death of Rossetti's wife, and the -beautiful _Beata Beatrix_ (also in the Tate Gallery) which was really -a memorial of her pure features, was followed by a number of -magnificent canvases painted from models of a rich and sumptuous -type, amongst which may be specially mentioned _The Beloved_, _Monna -Vanna_, and _Sibylla Palmifera_, _Lady Lilith_, the _Venus -Verticordia_, _The Loving Cup_, _Veronica Veronese_, _The Bower -Meadow_, _La Ghirlandata_, _Sea Spell_, and _La Bella Mano_. Lastly -comes a large group of single figure subjects painted from, or based -on, the dark and almost exotic features of Mrs. William Morris. Of -these may be named in particular _Mariana_, _Pandora_, _Proserpine_, -_Astarte Syriaca_, _La Donna della Finestra_, _The Day Dream_, and -Rossetti's last finished picture _La Pia_. - -Owing to an invincible dislike for exhibitions, and the secrecy which -in consequence hung over Rossetti's work, the two earlier groups were -hardly seen by the public at all until after his death, and his fame, -when it spread, was based chiefly upon the large canvases of the -latest group, which may account for the very general belief that -Rossetti painted only from one type of sitter, with somewhat -exaggerated characteristics, a further error which may be explained -by the mannerisms which undoubtedly beset him towards the close of -his life, when his health had failed permanently and his eyesight was -no longer at its best. - -Of the earliest pictures, painted for the most part when Rossetti was -little more than a boy, the following are selected for illustration: - - -(1) _Ecce Ancilla Domini_, which was exhibited in 1850 and helped to -bear the brunt of the vigorous onslaught which was made in that year -upon the pictures of the newly formed Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. -There is nothing which could possibly shock us now in the simple, -girl-like figure of Rossetti's Virgin, crouching in half-awakened awe -upon her pallet couch before the grave-faced angel who is holding out -to her a lily. In many ways it is a far more reverent treatment of -the scene than one is accustomed to in old Italian canvases with -their sumptuously robed madonnas and angels gay with peacock-wings -and jewelled trappings. The painting, too, is a masterpiece for so -young and inexperienced an artist, full of skill in the handling of -white draperies and restrained in the use of colour. The only bright -notes in the picture are the crimson cloth worked with a lily, upon a -stand at the foot of the bed, and the blue curtain at its head. -Everything else is subdued and faint with the clear light of an -English, not an Eastern, dawn, seen through the open window which -frames the golden head of the angel. - - -(2) _The Blue Closet_. This was painted in 1857, and formed one of a -notable series of small water-colours which once belonged to William -Morris. Although neither Dantesque nor Arthurian in subject, it is -strongly akin to the latter class in its feeling for mediaeval -chivalry and dress, and has been chosen because both in colouring and -composition it is one of the most perfect examples of Rossetti's -early work. It represents two queens, the one on the left in red -with green sleeves, and the one on the right in crimson and gray, -playing upon opposite sides of an inlaid clavichord or dulcimer. Two -other ladies stand behind them singing. Blue tiles on the wall and -on the floor suggest the title, which in its turn gave rise to one of -William Morris's poems. - -The next illustration given, as typical of Rossetti's intermediate -period is-- - - -(3) _Beata Beatrix_, which was bequeathed to the National Collection -by Lady Mount Temple, to whom it formerly belonged. This is so well -known from reproductions that it is unnecessary to describe it in -detail, further than to say that it represents symbolically the death -of Beatrice as set forth in the "Vita Nuova." Beatrice is not dead, -but is seated on a balcony in a trance, whilst standing a little way -in the background watching her are Dante and the figure of Love. A -crimson bird, the messenger of Death, is letting fall a poppy into -her lap. Beatrice is robed in pure green, such as Rossetti loved to -paint, with faint purple sleeves. A dial marks the fateful hour -which was to bear her, on that 9th of June, 1290, "to be glorious -under the banner of the blessed Queen Mary." On the frame, designed -by Rossetti himself, are the first words of the lamentation from -Jeremiah, _Quomodo sedet sola civitas_: "How doth the city sit -solitary that was full of people." There is a replica of this -picture in the Corporation Art Gallery of Birmingham, but it was an -unfinished one which was worked on after Rossetti's death by Madox -Brown. - -Our next illustration is from a pen-and-ink drawing, and is typical -of a branch of work in which Rossetti excelled almost as notably as -Burne-Jones. It represents: - - -(4) _Mary Magdalene at the house of Simon the Pharisee_. The date of -this famous drawing is 1853, but it was not actually finished until -some years later. The scene represents a procession of revellers, -amongst whom is the Magdalene with her lover. In passing the door of -Simon she sees within it the face of Christ, and striving to leave -her companions she tears off the garland from her head and presses up -the steps. Christ is watching her, and waits for her to reach him, -whilst the others try to bar her passage. A young doe is cropping -the bush which grows against the wall of the house. - - -(5) _The Beloved_, painted in 1866, is probably the most perfect of -all Rossetti's pictures. The subject is the Bride of the Psalms -advancing to her lover. "She shall be brought unto the king in -raiment of needlework; the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her -company." In the centre of the group is the bride, arrayed in such -gorgeous stuffs as only Rossetti could imagine, of an indescribable -green with flowing sleeves gorgeously embroidered in gold and red. -On her head is an ornament of scarlet oriental featherwork which -flashes like a jewel. Four dark-haired maidens accompany her, whose -heads form a frame to her own beauty, and in front a little negro -boy, with jewelled collar and headband, bears a golden vase of roses. -The figures, though life-size, are only painted half-length. The -faces are not of the type usually associated with Rossetti, and form -a sufficient answer in themselves to those who think that he never -painted from more than one model. The bride's, in particular, is a -face of extraordinary beauty. _The Beloved_ is one of a fine trio of -pictures commissioned by the late Mr. George Rae of Birkenhead, the -other two being _Monna Vanna_ and _Sibylla Palmifera_. As stated -already, they represent Rossetti's prime, when his work was -technically at its best, and before his health had broken down and -driven him into forced or morbid mannerisms. - - -(6) _Mariana_. This picture belongs to 1870, and was at one time in -the great Graham collection. The title is taken from "Measure for -Measure," and has no connection with Tennyson's poem. It was begun -originally in 1868, as a portrait of Mrs. Morris, and in most -essentials resembles the beautiful picture lent by her to the Tate -Gallery. Rossetti discarded the canvas at the time in favour of the -latter version, but took it up again afterwards, painted in the -figure of the boy singing, and gave it the Shakespeare name with the -legend from the page's song, "Take, O take those lips away." In the -Tate picture Mrs. Morris is seated at a table before a jar of roses; -here the lady is holding an embroidery frame, but in each case she -wears a gown of marvellous blue with contrasting chains and jewels. - - -[Illustration: DANTE'S DREAM.] - -(7) _Dante's Dream_. This, from its size and on other grounds is -regarded by many critics as the most important of Rossetti's -pictures. It is certainly the most popular, and if frequent -reproduction be any gauge, stands high amongst all modern pictures in -this respect. Its painting occupied the greater part of 1870 and -1871, and was a great physical strain, so much so that in the year -following Rossetti suffered from a severe break-down which -permanently affected his health. The subject, and practically the -composition also, are the same as in a small water-colour of 1856, -and represents the vision related by Dante in the "Vita Nuova" as -having come to him of Beatrice lying in death and angels bearing -upward her soul in the form of "an exceedingly white cloud." Love, -in a flame-coloured robe, is leading him up to the bier, and scarlet -birds, typifying love, are flying in and out of the house. Two -handsome maidens, in flowing gowns of green, are holding up the ends -of the pall which covered the bier, while Love bends down and kisses -the pale face of the dead lady. Beyond the arched doorway is seen a -glimpse of Florence with the Arno. The picture when finished proved -too large for its owner's room, and changed hands more than once -before it finally found a resting-place in the Walker Art Gallery at -Liverpool. Rossetti painted a second rather smaller picture, to -replace it, and added two predellas to the subject. - - -(8) _Astarte Syriaca_ is a vision of the Syrian Venus, massive and -splendid in form, with vague eyes typical of her mysteries. She -stands, facing the spectator, in a robe of gorgeous green, which half -reveals the outlines of her body, clasping with both hands her -jewelled girdle. On either side behind her are attendant spirits -bearing torches. The picture is a good example of Rossetti's latest -work. It was commissioned by the late Mr. Fry and painted in 1877. -It now adorns the Corporation Art Gallery of Manchester. - - - - -CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CHIEF PICTURES - - -OWNER - -1847. Portrait of the Artist (pencil). _National Portrait Gallery._ - -1849. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (oil). _Lady Jekyll._ - - The Laboratory (water-colour). _C. F. Murray._ - -1850. Ecce Ancilla (oil). _Tate Gallery._ - -1851. Borgia (water-colour). - -1852. Giotto painting Dante (water-colour). _Sir John Aird._ - -1854. Found (unfinished oil). _S. Bancroft, Jun._ - - Arthur's Tomb (water-colour). _S. Pepys Cockerell._ - -1855. Paolo and Francesca (water-colour diptych). _Rae Collection._ - - Rachel and Leah (water-colour). _Beresford Heaton._ - -1856. Dante's Dream (water-colour). _Beresford Heaton._ - - Fra Pace (water-colour). _Lady Jekyll._ - -1857. Designs for Moxon's Tennyson (wood-cuts). _Birmingham Art - Gallery._ - - Chapel before the Lists (water-colour). _Rae Collection._ - - The Tune of Seven Towers (water-colour). _Rae Collection._ - - The Blue Closet (water-colour). _Rae Collection._ - - Wedding of St. George (water-colour). _Rae Collection._ - - Christmas Carol (water-colour). _C. F. Murray._ - -1858. Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon (pen-and-ink). - _C. Ricketts._ - - Before the Battle (water-colour) _Prof. Norton._ - -1859. Bocca Baciata (oil). _C. F. Murray._ - - Salutation of Beatrice (oil). _F. J. Tennant._ - -1860. Bonifazio's Mistress (water-colour). _C. F. Murray._ - - Lucrezia Borgia (water-colour). _Rae Collection._ - - Seed of David (oil triptych). _Llandaff Cathedral._ - -1861. Dr. Johnson at the Mitre (water-colour). _C. F. Murray._ - -1861. Paolo and Francesca (water-colour). _W. R. Moss._ - - Regina Cordium (oil). _Arthur Severn._ - - Parable of the Vineyard (Morris windows). _St. Martin's, - Scarborough._ - - Crucifixion (Morris window). St. Martin's, Scarborough. - -1862. St. George and the Dragon (cartoons for Morris windows). - _Birmingham Art Gallery._ - - Tristram and Yseult (cartoons for Morris windows). - -1863. Beata Beatrix (oil). _Tate Gallery._ - - Belcolore (oil). _C. F. Murray._ - - Fazio's Mistress (oil). _Rae Collection._ - -1864. Lady Lilith (oil). _S. Bancroft, Jun._ - - Venus Verticordia (oil). - - Venus Verticordia (water-colour). _Rae Collection._ - - Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival - (water-colour). _Beresford Heaton._ - - Madness of Ophelia (water-colour). _Mrs. C. E. Lees._ - - How they met Themselves (water-colour). _S. Pepys Cockerell._ - - Joan of Arc (water-colour). _Beresford Heaton._ - -1865. The Blue Bower (oil). _Perrins Collection._ - - The Merciless Lady (water-colour). _C. F. Murray._ - -1866. The Beloved (oil). _Rae Collection._ - - Monna Vanna (oil). _Rae Collection._ - -1866-70. Sibylla Palmifera (oil). _Rae Collection._ - -1867. Christmas Carol (oil). _Rae Collection._ - - Joli Cœur (oil). _Miss Horniman._ - - The Loving Cup (oil). _T. Ismay._ - -1868. Portrait of Mrs. Morris (oil). _Lent to Tate Gallery._ - -1869. Rosa Triplex (crayon). _Tate Gallery._ - -1870. Mariana (oil). _F. W. Buxton._ - -1871. Pandora (oil). _Charles Butler._ - -1872. The Bower Meadow (oil). _Sir J. D. Milburn._ - - Veronica Veronese (oil). _W. Imrie._ - -1873. La Ghirlandata (oil). _J. Ross._ - - Proserpine (oil). _Charles Butler._ - -1874. The Roman Widow (oil). _F. Brocklebank._ - - Damsel of the Sanc Grael (oil). _Rae Collection._ - - The Boat of Love (grisaille). _Birmingham Art Gallery._ - - Marigolds (oil). _Lord Davey._ - -1875. La Bella Mano (oil). _Sir C. Quilter._ - - The Question (pencil). _Birmingham Art Gallery._ - -1876. The Blessed Damozel (oil). _Perrin's Collection._ - -1877. Astarte Syriaca (oil). _Manchester Art Gallery._ - - The Sea Spell (oil). - - Portraits (Mrs. Rossetti and Christina Rossetti) (crayon) - _National Portrait Gallery._ - -1878. Fiammetta (oil). _Charles Butler._ - -1879. Donna della Finestra (oil). _W. R. Moss._ - - The Blessed Damozel (oil). _Hon Mrs. O'Brien._ - -1880. Dante's Dream (oil). _W. Imrie._ - - The Day-dream (oil). _Ionides Collection: South - Kensington Museum._ - -1881. Dante's Dream (oil). _Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool._ - - La Pia (oil). _Russell Rea._ - - - - CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO., - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSSETTI *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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C. Marillier -</title> - -<style> - -body { color: black; - background: white; - margin-right: 10%; - margin-left: 10%; - font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; - text-align: justify } - -p {text-indent: 4% } - -p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } - -p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 200%; - text-align: center } - -p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 150%; - text-align: center } - -p.t2b {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 150%; - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center } - -p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 100%; - text-align: center } - -p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 100%; - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center } - -p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 80%; - text-align: center } - -p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 80%; - font-weight: bold; - text-align: center } - -p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 60%; - text-align: center } - -h1 { text-align: center } -h2 { text-align: center } -h3 { text-align: center } -h4 { text-align: center } -h5 { text-align: center } - -p.poem {text-indent: 0%; - margin-left: 10%; } - -p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; - letter-spacing: 4em ; - text-align: center } - -p.letter {text-indent: 0%; - margin-left: 10% ; - margin-right: 10% } - -p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; - font-size: 80%; - margin-left: 10% ; - margin-right: 10% } - -.smcap { font-variant: small-caps } - -p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; - margin-left: 10% ; - margin-right: 10% } - -p.intro {font-size: 90% ; - text-indent: -5% ; - margin-left: 5% ; - margin-right: 0% } - -p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; - margin-left: 0% ; - margin-right: 0% } - -p.finis { font-size: larger ; - text-align: center ; - text-indent: 0% ; - margin-left: 0% ; - margin-right: 0% } - -p.capcenter { margin-left: 0; - margin-right: 0 ; - margin-bottom: .5% ; - margin-top: 0; - font-weight: bold; - float: none ; - clear: both ; - text-indent: 0%; - text-align: center } - -img.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; - margin-bottom: 0; - margin-top: 1%; - margin-right: auto; } - -</style> - -</head> - -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rossetti, by H. C. Marillier</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Rossetti</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: H. C. Marillier</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 6, 2022 [eBook #69305]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Al Haines</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSSETTI ***</div> - -<p><br><br></p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-front"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-front.jpg" alt="BEATA BEATRIX."> -<br> -BEATA BEATRIX. -</p> - -<p><br><br></p> - -<p class="t3b"> - Bell's Miniature Series of Painters<br> -</p> - -<h1> -<br><br> - ROSSETTI<br> -</h1> - -<p class="t3"> - BY<br> -</p> - -<p class="t2"> - H. C. MARILLIER<br> -</p> - -<p><br><br></p> - -<p class="t3"> - LONDON<br> - GEORGE BELL & SONS<br> - 1906<br> -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p class="t4"> - CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.<br> - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.<br> -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p class="t3b"> -TABLE OF CONTENTS -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p class="noindent"> -CHAPTER -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -I. <a href="#chap01">INTRODUCTORY</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -II. <a href="#chap02">THE "PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD"</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -III. <a href="#chap03">WORK FROM 1849 TO 1853—INFLUENCE OF BROWNING </a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -IV. <a href="#chap04">FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSKIN—MARRIAGE, AND DEATH OF MRS. ROSSETTI</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -V. <a href="#chap05">WORK FROM 1854 TO 1857</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -VI. <a href="#chap06">WORK FROM 1858 TO 1862</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -VII. <a href="#chap07">SETTLING AT CHELSEA—WORK FROM 1863 TO 1874</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -VIII. <a href="#chap08">CLOSE OF THE RECORD. 1874-1882</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#chap09">OUR ILLUSTRATIONS</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#chap10">CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CHIEF PICTURES</a> -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p class="t3"> -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-front">BEATA BEATRIX</a> ... Frontispiece -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-032">ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-058">THE BLUE CLOSET</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-066">MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-078">THE BELOVED</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-084">MARIANA</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-092">ASTARTE SYRIACA</a> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -<a href="#img-106">DANTE'S DREAM</a> -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> - -<p class="t2"> -DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER I -<br><br> -INTRODUCTORY -</h3> - -<p> -Dante Gabriel, or, to give him his full -christening name, Gabriel Charles Dante -Rossetti, was born on May 12th, 1828, at -No. 38, Charlotte Street, Portland Place, and was -the second of four children, born in successive -years. Gabriele Rossetti, his father, was a native -of the city of Vasto, in the province of Abruzzi. -He was a man of superior ability and force of -character, and was at one time custodian of -bronzes at the Naples Museum; but having made -himself obnoxious to the Bourbon King Ferdinand -during the suppression of the constitution -in 1821, he was in consequence proscribed and -obliged to fly for safety. Assisted by a British -man-of-war in escaping to Malta, Gabriele Rossetti -remained there for some time, practising as an -instructor in his native language, until further -annoyance drove him in 1824 to England. Here -he settled, and obtained an appointment as -Professor of Italian at King's College. Meantime, -in 1826, he had married a daughter of Gaetano -Polidori, for some while secretary to the notable -Count Alfieri, and father of that strange being, -Dr. John Polidori, who travelled with Byron as -his physician, and committed suicide in 1821. -Gaetano Polidori's wife, Rossetti's grandmother, -was an Englishwoman, whose maiden name was -Pierce. To his parentage the young Gabriel -was indebted for much, but especially to his -mother. One can judge of the latter's quiet -sensible character, and deep religious instincts, -from the portraits left us by her son. But, besides -these qualities, she possessed good literary and -artistic judgement, shrewd knowledge of human -nature, and a fund of common sense which was -strong enough to prevent the somewhat mystical -spirit pervading the thoughts of her young family -from deteriorating into morbid and unhealthy -channels. Between D. G. Rossetti and his -mother the warmest and most affectionate relations -prevailed, relations that were only severed -by the former's untimely death on April 9th, -1882. Mrs. Rossetti survived her son exactly -four years to the very day. Her husband had -died in April, 1854, honoured at the last as a -patriot in his native land. Their elder daughter, -Maria, departed this life in 1876, and in December, -1894, Christina Rossetti also died, leaving -as sole survivor of this brilliant family the younger -son, William Michael, well known as a literary -critic and as the biographer of his more famous -brother. -</p> - -<p> -Albeit English in its main external features, -the environment of the Rossetti family in London -remained essentially Italian during their father's -lifetime. Gabriele Rossetti was a commentator on -Dante, and himself a writer of verse, mainly in -a politico-patriotic vein. To the ears of the -young Gabriel, familiarized by habit with the -sonorous metres of the "Inferno" and "Paradiso," -the name of Dante for many years conjured -up no very stimulating thoughts. It was not -until he had begun as a young man to read upon -his own lines, that the pictorial richness and -splendour of the Florentine dawned on him and -seized him with its spell. "The 'Convito,'" he -says, "was a name of dread to us, as being the -very essence of arid unreadableness,"—an -interesting fact to remember when dealing, as we -shall presently have to do, with the influence -which Dante was destined afterwards to exert -upon two members at least of the family. -</p> - -<p> -Reared in this studious atmosphere, however, -it is not to be wondered at that the young Rossettis -early took to literature. Before they were six -years old they had made acquaintance with Shakespeare -and Scott, in addition to the usual works -of childhood, and were steeped in romance of a -more lofty kind than is common at such an age. -</p> - -<p> -Of Rossetti's early literary efforts it is sufficient -to mention two: "The Slave," a bombastic -drama in blank verse, which occupied his faculties -at the age of five, and "Sir Hugh the Heron," -a legendary poem founded on a tale by Allan -Cunningham. These two productions do not -sum up the juvenile work of Rossetti of which a -record has been kept, but they are quite as much -as it is fair to mention, and serve sufficiently to -show the romantic drift of his earliest ideas. In -art he was scarcely less precocious; a pretty story -being told of a milkman, who came upon him in -the passage sketching his rocking-horse, and -expressed considerable surprise at having seen -"a baby making a picture." Drawings of this -date exist, and also later ones done when he was -in the habit of preparing illustrations for books -he read and for his own romances. In point of -quality, however, these juvenile sketches are not -to be compared with those of many masters of the -brush who began early, for example with those -of Millais, and are chiefly interesting in -connection with a statement of his brother that "he -could not remember any date at which it was -not an understood thing in the family that -Gabriel was to be a painter." -</p> - -<p> -In 1837, after a short preliminary training at -a private school, Dante Gabriel was admitted to -King's College, where his father was Italian -professor. His artistic training did not begin -until 1841 or 1842, when he left school, and -entered himself at a drawing academy known in -those days as "Sass's," and kept by Mr. F. S. Gary, -son of the translator of Dante. He remained -some four years at Gary's Academy, during which -period he seems to have acquired the bare -rudiments of his art and to have made a small -reputation for eccentricity. In July, 1846, having -sent in the requisite probation-drawings, he was -admitted to the Antique School of the Royal -Academy. His first appearance is graphically -delineated by a fellow-student, whose observant -eye has preserved for us a probably accurate -conception of the fiery young enthusiast: -</p> - -<p> -"Thick, beautiful, and closely-curled masses -of rich brown much-neglected hair fell about an -ample brow, and almost to the wearer's shoulders; -strong eyebrows marked with their dark shadows -a pair of rather sunken eyes, in which a sort of -fire, instinct with what may be called proud -cynicism, burned with furtive energy. His rather -high cheekbones were the more observable because -his cheeks were roseless and hollow enough -to indicate the waste of life and midnight oil -to which the youth was addicted. Close shaving -left bare his very full, not to say sensuous lips, -and square-cut masculine chin. Rather below -the middle height, and with a slightly rolling -gait, Rossetti came forward among his fellows -with a jerky step, tossed the falling hair back -from his face, and, having both hands in his -pockets, faced the student world with an <i>insouciant</i> -air which savoured of thorough self-reliance. -A bare throat, a falling, ill-kept collar, boots not -over familiar with brushes, black and well-worn -habiliments, including not the ordinary jacket -of the period, but a loose dress-coat which had -once been new—these were the outward and -visible signs of a mood which cared even less for -appearances than the art-student of those days -was accustomed to care, which undoubtedly was -little enough." -</p> - -<p> -As a student in the dry atmosphere of the -Academy Antique School Rossetti proved a -failure, and never passed to the higher grades -of the Life and Painting classes. Conventional -methods of study were distasteful to him, and -the traditions of the Academy were especially -arid and cramping to the imagination. It will -be necessary later on to give some description -of the state into which the art of painting had -fallen in England before the fresh minds of the -young romantic school, breaking away under -Rossetti's leadership, caused such a turmoil and -revolution; but in the meantime, at the period -we are dealing with, it is probably correct to say -that Rossetti grew tired of, rather than -disapproved of, the teaching in the school, that he -was full of ideas craving utterance on canvas, -and that he wanted to paint before he could -properly draw. This impatience caused him to -take a momentous and curious step, which -certainly entailed harm to him as a technical -executant, though it may indirectly have furthered -his career as an artist. He decided to throw up -the Academy training, and wrote to a painter of -whom not many people at that date had heard, -but whose work he himself admired, asking to -be admitted into his studio as a pupil. This was -Ford Madox Brown, and for his own particular -needs and line of thought Rossetti could have -lighted upon no man more absolutely suitable. -Madox Brown was only seven years Rossetti's -senior, but he had studied abroad at Ghent, -Antwerp, Paris, and Rome, and had exhibited -during the early forties some fine cartoon -designs for the decoration of the new House of -Lords. The pictures by Brown which Rossetti -had seen, and which he mentioned in writing, -were the <i>Giaour's Confession</i>, exhibited at the -Academy in 1841, <i>Parisina</i> (1845), <i>Our Lady of -Saturday Night</i>, and <i>Mary Queen of Scots</i>, of -which he remarked, "if ever I do anything in -art, it will certainly be attributable to a constant -study of that work." This, and other rather florid -compliments of the same sort, may well have -impressed Madox Brown, who was not accustomed -to be complimented, with a shrewd idea that he -was being made fun of; and the story has been -told how, in a suspicious frame of mind, he armed -himself with a stick and went forth to seek his -unknown correspondent. On arriving at the -house he was partly reassured by a door-plate; -and the evident sincerity and enthusiasm of -the boy himself, when they met, overcame his -generous warm-heartedness, and made him agree -to take Rossetti into his studio, and to teach him -painting, not for a fee, which he declined, but -for the sheer pleasure of encountering and training -up a sympathetic spirit. -</p> - -<p> -Before following his fortunes further in this -direction we must go back and note what -Rossetti's activities in literature had amounted -to during this period. These are no less than -astonishing. To take the greatest first, they -include the bulk of the verse translations from the -early Italian poets, first published in 1861, and -afterwards republished under the altered title of -"Dante and his Circle." Although worked on -and revised from time to time, these translations -remain in all essentials much as Rossetti compiled -them between the years 1845 and 1849, and they -rank among the finest work of the kind in the -English language, being no less remarkable for -their high poetic qualities than for the subtle -dexterity of phrase by which the sound and sense -of the originals have been transplanted into a -naturally colder tongue. Rossetti's translation of -the "Vita Nuova" alone might stand as a monument -of industry in such a case, for it breathes -a new spirit of language, a voluptuous and exotic -style such as has never been excelled for conveying -the emotional mysticism and introspective -sentiment of a southern lover; but to this he -added that great mass of verse translations and -sonnets, involving many days spent over musty -volumes at the British Museum. Even this was -not all, for between the same years he began -a translation in verse of the Nibelungenlied, -and finished a translation of von Aue's "Arme -Heinrich," which has been thought worthy of a -place amongst his collected works. Besides these, -in 1847, before he was nineteen years old, he -had written his best-known poem, "The Blessed -Damozel," together with several others, including, -"My Sister's Sleep," "The Portrait," and -considerable portions of "Ave," "A Last -Confession," and the "Bride's Prelude." The -performance of these literary efforts is so finished, -the sentiment so profound and mature, that one -can hardly understand the ambition which kept -painting in the foremost place and made poetry -the <i>parergon</i>. The ease with which versification -came to Rossetti may have blinded him at first -to the merits of his work in this art, as happened -later in the case of William Morris; but however -that may be, he was not encouraged to abandon -painting as a means of livelihood, and having -made the arrangement already described with -Madox Brown, he settled down with a characteristic -mixture of enthusiasm and despair to the -pursuit of art. -</p> - -<p> -Much as he owed to him in the way of instruction -and sympathetic encouragement, Rossetti -did not remain long in Brown's studio, at all -events as a regular attendant, but left him after -a few months to share a studio with Mr. Holman -Hunt. The beginning of this intimacy was curious -and typical. On the opening day of the Academy -Exhibition (May, 1848) "Rossetti," says -Mr. Hunt, "came up boisterously and in loud tongue -made me feel very confused by declaring that -mine was the best picture of the year. The fact -that it was from Keats (the picture was <i>The Eve of -St. Agnes</i>) made him extra-enthusiastic, for I think -no painter had ever before painted from this -wonderful poet, who then, it may scarcely be credited, -was little known." Rossetti begged to be allowed -to visit Hunt, for at the Academy schools they had -barely been acquainted, and, as an upshot of the -acquaintance, agreed to work for a time with -him, sharing for this purpose a studio which the -latter had just taken in Cleveland Street, Fitzroy -Square. Here (as well as later in a studio which -he took for himself at 83, Newman Street) -Brown, whose friendship continued to the end -of Rossetti's life, visited him from time to time, -and gave him the benefit of his advice; and here, -amid what Mr. Hunt has described as the most -dismal and dingy surroundings, Rossetti began -to paint his first real picture. The year 1848 -marks his transition artistically from boyhood to -adolescence, an adolescence in which depth of -feeling and height of aspiration transcended the -power of accomplishment, and no artificial -mannerisms obscured the seriousness of purpose that -characterized, not him alone, but the whole of -the small band of workers with which he presently -became associated. The formation of this band, -and the painting of Rossetti's first picture, bring -us to the story of the famous Pre-Raphaelite -movement, and will more properly serve to begin -a new, than to end a preliminary chapter. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER II -<br><br> -THE "PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD" -</h3> - -<p> -In relating afresh the history of the -"Pre-Raphaelite" movement, one has many -precedents to choose from. According to the point -of view selected one may see in it the conscious -expression of a great artistic revival, deliberately -planned by a body of zealots, and based upon a -structure of lofty principles; or one may go to -the opposite extreme and regard it merely as an -exuberant freak, an irresponsible outburst on the -part of a few impulsive youths linked together -for one brief moment by a mutual combination -of enthusiasm and high spirits. For both of these -points of view ample authority might be quoted, -and the truth as usual lies somewhere safe -between them. -</p> - -<p> -The tendency has been, on the whole, not -unnaturally, to exaggerate the significance of the -"Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," which after all -was but the grain of mustard seed from which a -great tree sprung. Its formation came about in -the following way. We have noted the somewhat -sudden alliance between Rossetti and Holman -Hunt, and their plan of sharing a studio to carry -out work in common. Through Hunt, Rossetti -had become acquainted with Millais, and had -joined, or helped to start, a "Cyclographic -Society," numbering several members, to wit, -Thomas Woolner, F. G. Stephens, Walter -Deverell, John Hancock the sculptor, James -Collinson, William Dennis, J. B. Keene, and -some four or five besides. The scheme was for -members to contribute drawings to a portfolio -which was sent round for all the rest to criticise. -Like other institutions based upon mutual candour, -this society enjoyed a very brief existence, -and was mainly of service in weeding out those -who did not sympathize with the new ideas which -were ripening in Rossetti and his friends from -those who did. The final development of these -ideas was brought about by a meeting at Millais's -home in Gower Street, where the three alighted -upon a volume of engravings after the frescoes -in the Campo Santo at Pisa. Ruskin has spoken -scornfully of this work as "Lasinio's execrable -engravings," but whatever their quality they at -least served to show that in the earlier men, who -preceded Raphael, there was a feeling for earnest -work, a striving after lofty expression, which was -worth more as an inspiration than the stereotyped -fashion of painting which had come into vogue -in England. Why this mechanical cult should -ever have become grafted on to the ill-used name -of Raphael, and shadowed by his stately fame, -is a difficult matter to explain, and requires an -excursus into the history of European art. Its -effect on the teaching of the day, however, is -summed up in the following incisive passage by -Ruskin: -</p> - -<p> -"We begin, in all probability, by telling the -youth of fifteen or sixteen that Nature is full of -faults, and that he is to improve her; but that -Raphael is perfection, and that the more he -copies Raphael the better; that after much -copying of Raphael, he is to try what he can do -himself in a Raphaelesque, but yet original -manner: that is to say, he is to try to do something -very clever, all out of his own head, but yet -this clever something is to be properly subjected -to Raphaelesque rules, is to have a principal -light occupying one-seventh of its space, and a -principal shadow occupying one-third of the -same; that no two people's heads in the picture -are to be turned the same way, and that all the -personages represented are to have ideal beauty -of the highest order, which ideal beauty consists -partly in a Greek outline of a nose, partly in -proportions expressible in decimal fractions between -the lips and chin; but partly also in that degree -of improvement which the youth of sixteen is to -bestow upon God's work in general." -</p> - -<p> -This canting and misdirected worship of -Raphael by men who had discarded his spirit, -and the realization that before Raphael there -were painters of lofty aim, may well have determined -the title under which the three enthusiasts -conspired to band themselves in revolt. From -most points of view it was unfortunate. It meant -very little in actual fact, it was misleading so far -as it did mean anything, and it was responsible -for much of the acrimony and abuse which the -devoted trio afterwards brought down upon their -most meritorious efforts. One curious feature of -the matter is that they appear to have possessed -between them at this time a comparatively slight -acquaintance with pre-Raphaelite pictures, not -more, perhaps, than the average intelligent visitor -to the National Gallery to-day. Scarcely -anywhere in their writings (we must except one -article by Mr. F. G. Stephens) do we find -praise, or even mention, of most of the great -pre-Raphaelite painters. Nothing of Mantegna, -Botticelli, Bellini, Orcagna, Fra Angelico, -Melozzo, Lippo Lippi, or Piero della Francesca. -At a slightly later date Rossetti visited Bruges, -and fell in love with Memling; but his letters -even then reveal some very crude preferences in -art. Whatever was perceived or imagined in the -work of the men they decided to follow must -have been largely a matter of instinct, backed up -by a strong sympathy for the naïve and simple -charm of the few early Italian pictures which -they had seen. It is a mistake to suppose that -what Rossetti and his companions admired or -sought to imitate in these old masters was their -mediaeval and primitive style of painting. The -mediaeval quality proved infectious, no doubt, -and may have influenced all more or less at first -in the direction of angularity and awkward -composition. But there were other causes which also -contributed to this. Amongst them may be -mentioned an idea that for every scene an actual -unidealized room or landscape must be painted, -and the figures grouped without reference to -arrangement; also that for each figure a definite -model must be taken and followed even to the -extent of blemishes. This counsel of perfection, -if it was ever seriously accepted, was certainly -not followed even from the first; but the fact of -its proposal shows the austere lines upon which -these youthful painters proceeded, and helps to -explain what many people have found a stumbling-block, -the lack of grace and harmony in some of -their earliest compositions. What they sought to -follow in the old Italian models, however, with -all their archaism and immaturity of skill was the -honest striving after nature, sincerity of style, -decorative simplicity, and, by no means least, the -pious selection of worthy subjects. It is this last -quality, exhibited alike by all the members of the -Brotherhood, that more plainly than anything -marks the cleavage between their "pre-Raphaelite" -work and the commonplace painting of the day. -They set themselves to paint great and ennobling -subjects, often greater than they could achieve, -out of their imagination, when the rest of the -world (always excepting men like Madox Brown, -who belonged to them in spirit) were painting what -Ruskin calls "'cattle-pieces,' and 'sea-pieces,' -and 'fruit-pieces,' and 'family-pieces'; the eternal -brown cows in ditches, and white sails in squalls, -and sliced lemons in saucers, and foolish faces in -simpers." -</p> - -<p> -In the inauguration of the "Brotherhood" -Rossetti took a specially active part, and the title -itself was invented by him. "Rossetti," says -Mr. Hunt, "with his spirit alike subtle and fiery, was -essentially a proselytiser, sometimes to an almost -absurd degree, but possessed, alike in his poetry -and painting, with an appreciation of beauty of -the most intense quality." Mr. Hunt adds that -the title of "Pre-Raphaelite" was adopted partly -in a spirit of fun, and, like other names which -have acquired honour, was originally a term of -reproach invented by their enemies. On this -account they prudently decided to keep it secret, -and to let no outward symbol of their union -appear beyond the mystic initials P.R.B., which -were to be used on all their pictures and in -private intercourse. -</p> - -<p> -The next step was to enroll sympathetic fellow -members. Besides the three founders of the -Brotherhood, Rossetti, Millais, and Holman -Hunt, four more or less active adherents were -enlisted. Hunt introduced Mr. F. G. Stephens, -who at that time was a painter, but very soon -abandoned art for criticism. Woolner, the -sculptor, whose contributions to the movement were -mainly poetical, was introduced by Millais, or -possibly Rossetti; and the latter certainly was -responsible for the remaining two recruits, his -brother and James Collinson. Collinson, a torpid -member at the best, and elected apparently -on the strength of one picture which Rossetti -thought "stunning," was mainly useful as a butt -to the others, who used to make fun of his sleepy -nature and drag him all reluctant from his bed -to go for midnight walks. Shortly afterwards, -being seized with religious propensities, he -vacated his membership and retired to Stonyhurst. -</p> - -<p> -For the doings of the Brotherhood the curious -reader will do well to consult the "Memoirs" -and the "Rossetti Papers" published by -Mr. W. M. Rossetti. Mr. Rossetti, not being an artist, -was himself elected secretary, and with business-like -care preserved in a diary all the daily and -weekly occurrences that came under his notice. -It is sufficient to say here that the weekly -attendances of the Brethren, at first a constant -source of pleasure and mutual help, had become -very irregular by December, 1850, that an -attempt was made to revive them in January, -1851, but without effect, and that Millais's -election to the Academy in 1853 gave a final -quietus to the organization, which for some time -previously had ceased to exist save in name. -The ranks of the Brotherhood had not even -remained intact. In addition to Collinson, it had -lost Woolner, who went to Australia when the -emigration craze was at its height. To replace -the former a young painter, Walter Howell -Deverell, had been nominated, but his election -was regarded by some as invalid. Deverell, whose -picture of Viola and the Duke in <i>Twelfth Night</i> -remains an almost solitary testimony to his genius, -unhappily died young. He possessed many -graces of appearance and manner, and was in all -respects a fascinating personality. Behind the -Brotherhood, and hitherto unmentioned, we seem -to catch a glimpse of another very gracious, -but retiring figure, that of Rossetti's sister -Christina, who in addition to her deeply religious -and poetic gifts, possessed a quiet fund of humour -to be expended on the events that occurred within -her little circle. -</p> - -<p> -We left Rossetti, in order to describe the -formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, at -the point where he had just settled down in a -joint studio with Holman Hunt to paint his first -picture. In an enthusiasm for community of -action, and a spirit of devotion to Keats, it had -been proposed that each of the Brethren should -illustrate, by an etching, a scene from that poet's -"Isabella." Hunt, however, was already engaged -upon his picture of <i>Rienzi</i>; Millais had work of -a less than Pre-Raphaelite character to finish off, -and Rossetti himself was seized with desire to -paint a subject which much commended itself -to his mystical and symbol-loving mind, <i>The -Girlhood of Mary Virgin</i>. The only one of the -three eventually, who touched Keats that year -(1848) was Millais, who achieved a triumph with -the striking picture, <i>Lorenzo and Isabella</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Rossetti's subject, as can well be imagined, gave -him endless trouble, and was a source of violent -fits of alternate depression and energy. Madox -Brown's diary, a document full of dry humour -and quaint touches, to say nothing of its pathos, -contains many anecdotes of Rossetti's exasperating -changefulness and want of consideration -which show that kindness did not blind the -painter to his pupil's foibles. To Brown's -description of Rossetti, "lying, howling, on his -belly in my studio," and, at another time, reduced -by struggles with impossible drapery to an -almost maudlin condition of profanity, we may -add Hunt's description of how he had solemnly -to take his companion out for a walk and explain -that if the interruptions of temper and multiplication -of difficulties did not cease, neither of -them would have a picture finished to show -alongside of Millais's—a remonstrance which he -says was effectual and taken in perfect good -part. -</p> - -<p> -So by the following spring (1849) all three -pictures were ready for exhibition, and were hung, -Millais's and Hunt's in the Academy, and -Rossetti's either from choice or necessity in the -so-called Free Exhibition held in a gallery at -Hyde Park Corner. Here it was bought for £80 -by the Marchioness of Bath, in whose family an -aunt of Rossetti's was acting as governess. The -picture is on many accounts a favourite one -with lovers of Rossetti's work. Considering -the painter's age and want of proper training, it -is a masterly performance. The scene shown is -a room in the Virgin's home, with an open -balcony at which her father, St. Joachim, is -tending a symbolically fruitful vine. On the -right of the picture, are the figures of the Virgin -and her mother seated at an embroidery frame. -The young girl, a most untypical Madonna, in -simple gray dress with pale green at the wrists, -pauses with a needle in her hand, and gazes with -a rapt ascetic look at the room before her, where, -as if visible to her eyes, a child-angel is tending -a tall white lily. Beneath the pot in which the -lily grows are six large books bearing the names -of the six cardinal virtues. These, and a dove -perching on the trellis, are amongst the peaceful -symbols of the picture, whilst the tragedy also is -foreshadowed in a figure of the cross formed by -the young vine-tendrils and in some strips of -palm and "seven-thorned briar" laid across the -floor. Rossetti painted the calm face of his -mother for St. Anna, and his sister Christina for -the Virgin, giving her, however, in contravention -of the rule mentioned above, golden instead of -dark brown hair. -</p> - -<p> -Although 1848 is intrinsically the year of the -Pre-Raphaelite movement, much of the work of -the next two years comes within the scope of its -influence. As an example may be cited the -important pen-and-ink drawing called <i>Il Saluto di -Beatrice</i>, representing in two compartments the -meeting of Dante and Beatrice, first in a street -of Florence and secondly in Paradise. The -whole composition was repeated in oil in 1859, -and the meeting in Paradise formed the subject -of more than one separate drawing. The cream -of Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite work, however, -during the two years subsequent to 1848, is the -<i>Ecce Ancilla Domini</i>, a sequel in sentiment to -his picture of the previous year. This is well -known to frequenters of the National Gallery -at Millbank, and is described elsewhere. It was -exhibited in 1850 under the same auspices as its -predecessor (though the gallery this year was -moved to Portland Place), and was priced at -£50. Its appearance was the signal for a storm -of abuse and raillery, which descended with -impartial violence also upon the pictures of -the other "Pre-Raphaelites" exhibited at the -Academy, and pursued them relentlessly until -time and success finally established their position. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-032"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-032.jpg" alt="ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI."> -<br> -ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI. -</p> - -<p> -It would serve no purpose to go again and at -length into the nature of this attack. Charles -Dickens and many other great men lent their -names to it, and the Brethren were compelled -to face evil days in consequence. But in the -darkest hour a saviour appeared. Ruskin, who before -the outcry hardly knew of the existence of the -school, had his attention drawn to it by Coventry -Patmore, and with characteristic fearlessness and -energy plunged into the fray. In a series of letters -to the "Times" he defended the artists at all -points, from the charge of being ignorant copyists -and realists, the accusation that they could not -draw, the alleged conspiracy against Raphael, and -finally from the subtlest insinuation of all, because -it sounded so professional, the charge that they -knew not the laws of perspective. This ardent -championship had one curious effect. In his -warmth of defence Ruskin had not only combatted -the statement of faults, but had revelled in -laying down an elaborate statement of principles. -Thus it came about that the original ideas out -of which the Brotherhood had grown, ideas of a -broad and possibly nebulous character, became -transmuted into hard and fast rules of conduct -and of practice, which the Brotherhood more or -less had to accept, partly perhaps out of gratitude -to their benefactor, partly because they agreed -with them in theory, and partly because they -may not have seen how far they led. -</p> - -<p> -On the other hand, if we are not to credit the -"Pre-Raphaelites" with all the fine sentiments -attributed to them in Ruskin's inspired defence, -it is absurd to imagine, as some have done, that -they failed to take themselves or their work -seriously because Rossetti in his family letters -used to speak flippantly of his unlucky little -picture, which, like a curse, had come home to -roost. Men often enough speak lightly to friends -of things which have lain at the heart; and if -Rossetti joked to his brother about "the blessed -eyesore" and "the blessed white daub," it is -none the less true that he had striven to put all -his thoughts and all his knowledge into it, with -such success that it reveals to us to-day an -intensity of feeling and reverence which few -modern painters have emulated, and to which -Rossetti in his later work did not always attain. -</p> - -<p> -A characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood -which has not yet been touched on, and -which here calls for digression, was its remarkable -literary strength. Of the seven original members, -two—W. M. Rossetti and Stephens—were writers -by preference. The former did not paint at all. -Gabriel Rossetti was, as we have seen, a poet -before he could be called a painter, and a poet -of the first order. Woolner also was a poet, and -in this capacity alone belonged to the movement. -Collinson made a third; Deverell a weak fourth. -Millais and Hunt showed no inclination this way; -but, besides those mentioned, the coterie included -Christina Rossetti, William Bell Scott, Coventry -Patmore, and Madox Brown, who wrote occasionally -in verse. Even without the need of a -propaganda such a body was almost bound in -the nature of things to produce literary thought -allied in sentiment with its artistic ideas and -aims. Hence came about the "Germ," that -much-prized periodical, which had its origin in -the fertile brain of Rossetti, and which was -ostensibly formed to be the organ of the P.R.B., -and to spread its opinions. The first number -included "My Sister's Sleep" and the prose -romance, "Hand and Soul," by Rossetti. -Subsequent numbers contained "The Blessed -Damozel," "The Carillon," "Sea Limits" (under -its first title of "From the Cliffs"), and six or -seven sonnets. Of the four numbers published -the first two only were called "The Germ," the -title in the third and fourth being altered to -"Art and Poetry" at the suggestion of the -Tuppers, who as printers of the magazine had -taken over the responsibility on generous terms. -</p> - -<p> -The "Germ," as its brief career sufficiently -denotes, fell almost stillborn upon an ungrateful -world; but amongst a small class of artists and -admirers it undoubtedly served to strengthen -Rossetti's reputation. There was nothing feeble -or immature about the poetical ideas expressed -in it, and one may even be surprised that such -an original piece of work as the "Blessed -Damozel" did not attract greater attention. Both -it and "Hand and Soul" have frequently been -reprinted. The latter is interesting for the light -it throws upon Rossetti's mediaeval and mystical -mind. To some extent it is an autobiographical -record, a memory of mental perturbations and -experiences which beset the young painter, striving -to preserve and foster the spiritual side of his -nature at the expense of more than commonly -strong bodily inclinations. From an abstraction -like this story of the mythical young painter -Chiaro dell' Erma we may feel we get one truer -glimpse of the real Rossetti than any number -of life-histories, overlaid with trivial incidents -which obscure rather than reveal his personality, -can give us. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER III -<br><br> -WORK FROM 1849 TO 1853<br> -INFLUENCE OF BROWNING AND DANTE -</h3> - -<p> -Before the first number of the "Germ" -had appeared, and while it was in progress, -Rossetti, accompanied by Holman Hunt, paid -a short and hurried visit to Paris and Belgium. -A rhyming diary and a series of jocular sonnets, -interspersed with a few serious ones, recall the -vigour of his first impressions. A large proportion -of the time was spent at the Louvre and other -galleries, rushing through Old Masters at a -furious rate. -</p> - -<p> -After their return home Rossetti found his -affairs in a bad way. The failure of the <i>Ecce -Ancilla</i> to find a purchaser at once (it was not sold -until June 1853), and the storm of unfavourable -comment it provoked, caused him frankly to -abandon as unprofitable the mine of -semi-religious, semi-mystical feeling which he had -begun to work, and it was some time before he -could settle down to find another. Feeling his -way pictorially towards the field of romance in -which his thoughts wandered, he began to -undertake subjects from this class of literature, -from Browning, Dante, Keats, and later from -the "Morte Darthur" of Malory. His first -experiment was a large canvas illustrating the -page's song in "Pippa Passes," which soon -became impossible and had to be dropped. The -composition of it remains, however, in a little -painting called <i>Hist, said Kate the Queen</i>, dated -1851. Two other designs from Browning which -were carried out at this time are a pen-and-ink -drawing from "Sordello" entitled <i>Taurello's -first sight of Fortune</i> and <i>The Laboratory</i>. The -latter was, in all probability, Rossetti's first -attempt at water-colour (it is painted over a -pen-and-ink drawing, as several of his early ones were), -and bears but slight resemblance either in thought -or execution to the work by which he is popularly -known. -</p> - -<p> -In addition to these three subjects, Rossetti -drew or painted in the years 1849-50 other themes -of a romantic and mediaeval nature. Amongst -them was his first illustration to Shakespeare, a -scene from "Much Ado about Nothing," -representing the happy lovers, <i>Benedick and Beatrice</i>, -receiving the felicitations of those who had plotted -their match. -</p> - -<p> -From the "Vita Nuova" Rossetti took the -incident of <i>Dante drawing an Angel on the -Anniversary of Beatrice's Death</i>, executed first in -pen-and-ink, and originally given to Millais. A -water-colour of the same subject is of later date, 1853. -The latter was bought by Mr. Thomas Combe, -of the Oxford University Press, and was -bequeathed by his widow to the Taylorian Museum, -where it remains. -</p> - -<p> -The "Vita Nuova" also furnished the subject -of a small water-colour of 1849, representing -<i>Beatrice at the Wedding Feast denying her salutation -to Dante</i>. The poet, with a friend grasping -his arm as if to restrain him, stands watching a -procession of figures clad in blue and green, and -adorned with roses in their hair. The central -figure of the bridal procession is a portrait of -Miss Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, who first came -into Rossetti's life at about this date. She was -the daughter of a Sheffield cutler, and was -employed in a milliner's shop off Leicester Square, -where Walter Deverell discovered her one day -when shopping with his mother. She was -persuaded to sit to Deverell for his <i>Viola</i>, and -later to Rossetti. Her portrait also occurs in -a picture by Holman Hunt and in Millais's -<i>Ophelia</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Both on account of her romantic history and -her individual attractions, the personality of Miss -Siddal has always exercised a delicate charm over -those who love Rossetti. She was the model for -most of Rossetti's earliest and finest water-colours -containing women, and probably for all his -Beatrices except the last. -</p> - -<p> -To resume the tale of early work, in 1851 -Rossetti continued to be engaged on small -subjects of a mediaeval or dramatic character. We -have, for instance, the charming little group called -<i>Borgia</i>, in which the famous Lucretia is seen -seated with a lute in her hands, to the music -of which two children are dancing. Over her -shoulders lean on the one side the bloated Pope -Alexander VI, on the other her brother Caesar, -beating time with a knife against a wine-glass on -the table, and blowing the rose-petals from her -hair. Lucretia's white gown is of ample folds, -with elaborate sleeves, looped up all over with -coloured ribbons and bows, a device which so -took Rossetti's fancy that he repeated it in -<i>Bonifazio's Mistress</i> (1860). -</p> - -<p> -In the same year (1851) was produced the -first design for a subject of weird and ghostly -conception, called <i>How they met Themselves</i>. -This depicts a pair of lovers wandering at -twilight in a wood, and suddenly confronted with -their own doubles. The legend of the Doppelganger -was one of a class of mysterious horrors -which greatly appealed to Rossetti's imagination, -and which fascinated him from boyhood. Few -but he however would have dared to draw it, and -fewer still could have succeeded with it. The -first design just referred to, was drawn in -pen-and-ink, and was destroyed or lost at an early -date; but Rossetti redrew it in 1860 whilst at -Paris on his honeymoon, and four years later -painted two water-colour versions. -</p> - -<p> -To the year following, 1852, belongs a remarkable -water-colour, representing Giotto painting a -famous portrait of Dante which was discovered -on removing the plaster from the wall of the -Bargello in 1839. Giotto is in dull red, with -brocaded sleeves turned back. To his left is -seated Dante, cutting a pomegranate in his hand, -and gazing down with a rapt expression to where -Beatrice is passing in a church procession. -Behind Giotto stands his master, Cimabue, watching -the work which is to eclipse his; and behind -Dante leans his rival, Cavalcanti, holding in his -hand a book of Guinicelli, symbolizing thereby -the three generations of poets. -</p> - -<p> -Nothing else of importance is catalogued under -the year 1852, but in 1853 we come to one or -two well-known designs and pictures. First may -be mentioned the pen-and-ink drawing entitled -<i>Hesterna Rosa</i>, founded upon the plaintive song -of Elena in Sir Henry Taylor's "Philip van -Artevelde": -</p> - -<p class="poem"> - "Quoth tongue of neither maid nor wife<br> - To heart of neither wife nor maid,<br> - 'Lead we not here a jolly life<br> - Betwixt the shine and shade?'<br> -</p> - -<p class="poem"> - Quoth heart of neither maid nor wife<br> - To tongue of neither wife nor maid,<br> - 'Thou wag'st, but I am sore with strife,<br> - And feel like flowers that fade.'"<br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -The scene represents two gamblers throwing dice, -and their mistresses, one of whom in a fit of shame -is covering her face. She is the "yesterday's -rose." The other clasps her arms round the neck -of her lover, and is singing a merry song. An -innocent little child near by is touching a lute, -and Rossetti has completed the other aspect of -the scene by putting in an ape scratching itself, -a Düreresque touch which he added also in the -little <i>Borgia</i> group. A water-colour version of -the same subject was painted in 1865, and a -larger version, bearing the title <i>Elena's Song</i>, -was painted in 1871. -</p> - -<p> -The starting of <i>Found</i> is one of the most -memorable events in connection with the year -1853. The subject is a countryman or drover -recognizing in a fallen woman of the streets his -own lost sweetheart. <i>Found</i> was commissioned -by a Mr. MacCracken, who was also the purchaser -of <i>Ecce Ancilla</i>, in 1853, and several -studies were made for it. The picture however -was never finished. "It was," writes -Mr. W. M. Rossetti, "a source of lifelong vexation to my -brother and to the gentlemen, some three or four -in succession, who commissioned him to finish -it." After his death, Sir Edward Burne-Jones -consented to give a sort of finish to the picture -by washing in blue sky. In its half-completed -state it passed into the possession of Mr. William -Graham, and after his death it went to America. -</p> - -<p class="t3"> -* * * * * -</p> - -<p> -A short note on Rossetti's movements during -the period just covered may be given here. We -left him in 1848, after a few months' work at -Madox Brown's, sharing a studio with Holman -Hunt in Cleveland Street, Soho, and painting at -the <i>Girlhood of the Virgin</i>. At the beginning of -1851, he took in common with Deverell the first -floor rooms at No. 17, Red Lion Square—the -rooms which Morris and Burne-Jones occupied -subsequently from 1856 to 1859, and which -served as a cradle for the famous firm. In -November, 1852, he took a set of rooms at 14, -Chatham Place, Blackfriars, on a site now cleared -away, overlooking the river and presenting other -advantages. Here he remained for nearly ten -years, including the brief two years of his married -life, and here he accomplished what many judges -consider the most interesting portion of his work. -He had by now acquired a certain measure of -independence as a painter, which went on -increasing as generous or wealthy patrons -attached themselves. That his progress was slow, -and that for many years he was reduced to selling -water-colours of priceless beauty for comparatively -trifling sums, was the result partly of a -determination which he formed never to exhibit -his work. This resolve, which later on became -a sort of mania, is said to have been due in the -first instance to the discouraging reception of -<i>Ecce Ancilla Domini</i> in 1850. For a long time, -of course, it prevented his being known at all or -appreciated by possible purchasers, and his work -circulated amongst a narrow circle of artistic -friends. In the days of his greatness it may have -had an opposite effect by arousing curiosity, and -producing a feeling of pique. Buyers were -attracted towards a man who was notorious for -despising the public eye, and whose work was -spoken of with bated breath as something -supremely precious. With some few exceptions, -however, it is essential to remember that -Rossetti's work was absolutely unseen by the -public, who became acquainted with him as a -poet long before they knew him even dimly -as a painter. The effects of this ignorance are -still discernible. Even after two great -exhibitions of his works in London, and after the -publication of a wide selection from his designs, -there are people who believe that Rossetti never -painted but from one model, and that all his -pictures are distinguished by impossible lips and -a goitrous development of neck. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER IV -<br><br> -FRIENDSHIP WITH RUSKIN.—MARRIAGE,<br> -AND DEATH OF MRS. ROSSETTI -</h3> - -<p> -With the year 1854 Rossetti's life entered -upon a new phase. This was the first -year of his memorable connection with Ruskin. -At the same time he had by now engaged himself -to marry Miss Siddal, whose companionship -and whose health became, for the next eight -years, the most absorbing facts in his private life. -To speak of Ruskin first, his was no ordinary -friendship, but a curious combination of patron, -friend, and mentor. If Rossetti had been a -common man, living an ordinary life and working -on regular lines, such a connection would have -been, as he jocularly described it once, "in a -way to make his fortune." For Ruskin was willing -to buy within certain limits almost everything -that Rossetti produced. Furthermore, having -taken a great fancy to Miss Siddal, and admiring -her poetic and artistic gifts, which had grown in -a remarkable way under Rossetti's tuition, he -tried to make an arrangement whereby he should -purchase all her work also, and there is no doubt -that Ruskin's help at this critical period was -invaluable, and that without it the young couple -would have suffered even more struggling times -than they did. For Rossetti was hopelessly -unthrifty, flush of money one day, out-at-elbows -the next, and invariably anticipating any money -to be earned from commissions. The Ruskin -letters which have been published, throw an -interesting light upon this butterfly existence. -</p> - -<p> -Before passing from the subject of Ruskin it -is interesting to note that he enlisted Rossetti as -an active helper in the scheme promoted by -Frederic Denison Maurice for bringing art into -the East end. His method of teaching has been -described by one who attended his lectures. He -began at once with colour. As in his own -personality and his own work, light and shade, -drawing, and everything else was subservient to -colour. Without troubling about the grammar -of design he gave his pupils nature to copy and -showed them how to copy it. A later generation -has come to see wisdom in Rossetti's method, -and has introduced it successfully under -government auspices in elementary schools. -</p> - -<p> -In 1860 Rossetti and Miss Siddal carried out -their long projected plans of matrimony, which -had been delayed by the latter's illness, by -uncertain prospects, and perhaps also by a final -want of resolution on Rossetti's part. -</p> - -<p> -The marriage took place on May 23rd, and -the young couple went for their wedding trip to -Paris and Boulogne. On their return the rooms -at Chatham Place were extended by opening a -door into the adjoining house. The independent -bachelor habits to which both were accustomed -made life as Bohemian and irregular after -marriage as before it. Men friends came and went -as they pleased; tavern dinners relieved the -strain of studio work, and little if any respect -was paid to the conventions of social intercourse. -Mrs. Rossetti's delicate health alone made it -impossible for her to go about much, except -amongst devoted and intimate friends, the chief -of whom in these days perhaps were Algernon -Charles Swinburne and the Madox Brown and -Morris families. In May, 1861, Mrs. Rossetti -gave birth to a child, still-born, and her slow -recovery, added to the phthisical troubles with -which she was afflicted, induced a severe and -wearing form of neuralgia. For this she was -prescribed laudanum, of which, on the night of -February 10, 1862, she unhappily took an -overdose. Poor Rossetti, on returning home from the -Working Men's College, where he had been -lecturing, found his wife already past recovery, -and, frantic with anxiety, rushed off to Highgate -Rise to summon the ever-ready assistance of -Madox Brown. The following morning she died, -after but two years of married life clouded with -illness; and for a time at least her loss deprived -Rossetti of all capacity for work and almost of -all interest in his art. The most touching event -in his whole career of swift and flame-like -emotions is the sudden impulse which led him, -as his wife's coffin was being closed, to bury in -her hair the drafts of all his early poems, which -at her request he had copied into a little book. -Only a poet could put into words the dramatic -intensity of grief which was expressed in this now -historic sacrifice to the memory of Rossetti's -dead wife. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER V -<br><br> -WORK FROM 1854 TO 1857 -</h3> - -<p> -Rossetti's work, during the earlier part of -the period we have been glancing through, -was of a particularly interesting, and towards -the latter end of a sufficiently varied character. -In range of subject it belongs to the category -described in Chapter III, with the important -addition that now for the first time is added to -his sources of romantic inspiration the "Morte -Darthur" of Sir Thomas Malory. This cycle of -old Celtic legends had been for many years -practically a sealed book in England, and its -popularity to-day is largely owing to the interest -revived in it by Rossetti, and later by the famous -group of Oxford friends, including William Morris -and Edward Burne-Jones. Rossetti had become -acquainted with Malory by 1854, which is the -date of that strange, sad little water-colour, <i>King -Arthur's Tomb</i>, representing, in an imaginary -scene, Launcelot bidding a last farewell to -Guenevere. Apart from this Rossetti had in -hand a number of drawings which were -continually put on one side as fresh ideas crowded -into his restless brain, and were often not -finished until many years later. The statement -could easily be verified, that many, if not most, -of Rossetti's later pictures were planned during -these early strenuous years of his life, so that it -is not to be wondered at that the actual finished -work of these early years was sparse in quantity -and slight in quality—much slighter, for instance, -than the two religious paintings with which he -had begun his career. On the other hand, for -many people these little water-colours of Rossetti's -second period have a charm that nothing in his -larger and more elaborated later work can recall. -</p> - -<p> -In the early part of 1854 Rossetti wrote to -Ruskin that he was occupied with ideas for three -subjects, <i>Found</i>, <i>Mary Magdalene at the Door -of Simon</i>, and another which is not named, but -which from the context one may infer to have -been the water-colour diptych of <i>Paolo and -Francesco da Rimini</i>. In August of the same -year he wrote that he was at work on a <i>Hamlet -and Ophelia</i>, "deeply symbolical of course," and -predestined for the folio which Millais had -presented, and which was still supposed to be in -circulation among the members of a select -sketching club. About the same time he -submitted to Ruskin two designs for <i>The Passover</i>, -one of which was chosen to be begun at once, -while Ruskin also commissioned seven drawings -from the "Purgatorio," of which one certainly, -<i>Matilda gathering Flowers</i>, was very shortly -put in hand. None of these undertakings saw -the light for at least another year; the <i>Hamlet</i> -not for four or five. The <i>Matilda</i> was finished -first and delivered in September 1855, and on -the 2nd December Madox Brown records in his -diary, <i>apropos</i> Miss Siddal being stranded in -Paris without money, "Gabriel, who saw that -none of the drawings on the easel could be -completed before long, began a fresh one, -<i>Francesca da Rimini</i>, in <i>three compartments</i>; -worked day and night, finished it in a week, -got thirty-five guineas for it from Ruskin, and -started off to relieve them." This was the earliest -version of a subject that Rossetti returned to -more than once, representing in one compartment -the lover's kiss, and in the second their two souls -floating clasped together in Hell through a rain -of pale sulphurous flames. Between the -compartments are two figures meant for Dante and -Virgil, with the words "O Lasso!" Within the -same period, viz., by October, 1855, another -Dante subject, <i>The Vision of Rachel and Leah</i>, -was taken up and completed. -</p> - -<p> -<i>The Passover</i> drawing, just referred to, is a -small, unfinished water-colour, in which once -more Rossetti has treated the domestic life of -the Holy Family with a reverent freedom from -conventionality, such as Millais used in <i>The -Carpenter's Shop</i> and Holman Hunt in the -<i>Finding of Christ in the Temple</i>. <i>The Passover</i> -was one of Rossetti's very earliest designs, having -been sketched out first as far back as 1849; it -was the one selected for a memorial window to -Rossetti in the church at Birchington-on-Sea, -where he was buried. -</p> - -<p> -Other drawings which are dated, or were -finished by 1855, though they may have been in -hand considerably earlier, are <i>The Nativity</i>, <i>La -Belle Dame sans Mercy</i>, and the <i>Annunciation</i>, -all water-colours. In the last-named the Virgin -(done from Miss Siddal) is represented washing -clothes in a stream, whilst the angel Gabriel -stands by with folded wings, between two trees: -both are in white, and the picture shows a strong -effect of sunlight. -</p> - -<p> -In addition to the foregoing there must be -chronicled under 1855 the first of the important -and beautiful designs for woodcuts, which in the -absence of his pictures were almost the only -means afforded to the public for many years -of judging of Rossetti's work. This is a drawing -for a poem in William Allingham's "Day and -Night Songs," called <i>The Maids of Elfen-Mere</i>. -Allingham was employed in the Customs in -Ireland, and at the period in question, and for -some years after, Rossetti and he were very -intimate, corresponding freely and vivaciously -on all topics concerning their circle. -</p> - -<p> -In 1856 were completed the water-colours of -<i>Dante's Dream</i> and <i>Fra Pace</i>. Mr. William -Morris, who acquired several early water-colours -by Rossetti, was apparently the first purchaser -of <i>Fra Pace</i>. The picture represents a kneeling -monk busy illuminating at a desk. He has -worked so long that the cat has coiled itself up -asleep upon his trailing robe. A youthful acolyte -is tickling it with a straw in order to beguile the -tedium of the long silence. The drawing is -somewhat archaic in character and stiff in design, -but it is eminently characteristic of Rossetti, full -of quaint conceits and humour, from the row of -little bottles that hold the good man's pigments -to the dead mouse he is copying and the split -pomegranate that lies uneaten by his side. -</p> - -<p> -The <i>Dante's Dream</i> above mentioned is the -first, and in certain points most beautiful, version -of the subject which afterwards served for -Rossetti's largest picture, the one in the Walker -Art Gallery at Liverpool. The water-colour is -somewhat squarer in shape, but the composition -and pose of the five figures are very much the -same as in the large Liverpool picture. -</p> - -<p> -In March, 1856, Rossetti secured an important -commission—judged by the standard of his -current work and prices—to paint a reredos in -three compartments for the cathedral of Llandaff, -which John P. Seddon was engaged in restoring. -The subject he chose for this undertaking was -<i>The Seed of David</i>, showing in the centre-piece -the infant Christ on his mother's knee being -adored by a shepherd and a king, and on either -side a single figure of David, first as a shepherd-boy -slinging the stone for Goliath, and secondly -as a king harping to the glory of God. The -triptych was not completely finished until 1864, and -after that was considerably retouched in 1869, -when Rossetti went down to Llandaff for the -purpose. -</p> - -<p> -The year 1856 (or, if we take the date of -publication, 1857) deserves commemoration as the -year of the famous Moxon "Tennyson," for -which Rossetti designed no fewer than five -illustrations. -</p> - -<p> -Separate pen-and-ink drawings exist for most, -if not for all, of these Tennyson designs, and -water-colours were afterwards painted from three -of them. -</p> - -<p> -In point of number and interest the productions -of 1857 are remarkable. It was the year of -the Oxford frescoes, for one thing, though these -dragged on till 1859; and it was the year of a -charming little series of water-colours, which -were acquired one after the other by Rossetti's -newly-made acquaintance, William Morris, who, -some time later, being in want of capital for -his own business, sold them in a batch to their -late possessor, Mr. George Rae. These comprise: -</p> - -<p> -(1) The <i>Damsel of the Sanc Grael</i>, robed in -green, holding a long-stemmed cup in her hand. -</p> - -<p> -(2) <i>The Death of Breuse sans Pitié</i>, one of the -crudest and least successful of Rossetti's -water-colours. -</p> - -<p> -(3) <i>The Chapel before the Lists</i>, a scene -suggested by Malory of a lady helping to arm a -kneeling knight, her long white head-dress, as -she stoops to kiss him, falling like a mantle -down her blue dress. Upon the pointed shield -of the knight is a figure of a maiden in distress. -Beyond the chapel is a tented field, and knights -going forth to joust. -</p> - -<p> -(4) <i>The Tune of Seven Towers</i>, a quaint little -scene, very characteristic of Rossetti's fertility -and originality of invention. A lady in red with -mediaeval head-dress is sitting in a high oaken -chair, which above towers up into a sort of -belfry, and is playing upon a musical instrument -which also forms part of the chair. A man in -green doublet, with long boots, sits sideways on -a stool close by watching her, and a second lady -stands mournfully behind. A banner hangs down -at the right from a pole which cuts the picture -diagonally in half. -</p> - -<p> -(5) <i>The Blue Closet</i>, illustrated and described -elsewhere. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-058"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-058.jpg" alt="THE BLUE CLOSET."> -<br> -THE BLUE CLOSET. -</p> - -<p> -<i>The Wedding of St. George</i>, in the same collection, -belongs to this year, but was not acquired -from Mr. Morris. The old story of St. George -and the Dragon had a powerful influence upon -the romantic school to which Rossetti belonged. -Burne-Jones's variations upon it are well known, -and Rossetti also, besides treating it as a whole -in a series of designs for stained glass windows, -painted St. George more than once at typical -stages of the adventure. In this earliest version -he is resting from his feat, clad in armour, with -a gorgeous surcoat, whilst the princess kneels -and leans her head upon his breast, cutting off -a long dark lock of hair which she has bound -upon the crest of his helmet. The dragon's head, -a monstrous object, stands grotesquely in one -corner in a box with ropes attached for drawing -it along. In the background is a hedge of -flowers and attendant angels playing on bells. -</p> - -<p> -The artistic and romantic impulses stirring in -England at the midpoint of the century had, as -we have seen, produced one notable movement -in the shape of the "Pre-Raphaelite -Brotherhood." Five or six years later they gave rise to -another, not less important, and shortly afterwards -a fusion of the two took place. The second -of these "Brotherhoods"—the word was actually -adopted for a time—had its origin at Exeter -College, Oxford, in the personalities of William -Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, and resolved -itself at first, like its forerunner, into a "crusade -and holy warfare against the age," with an added -religious tinge which was hardly visible in the -other. The Oxford group, like the "P.R.B.," -published a magazine to illustrate, not to preach, -their principles, and had as a tangible link with -Rossetti the same warm appreciation of the -beauties of the Arthurian legend first introduced -to their notice by Burne-Jones. -</p> - -<p> -In the Christmas vacation of 1855 Burne-Jones -came up to London, and after attending -a meeting of the Working Men's College in order -to see Rossetti, whom he and Morris had already -begun to worship, he was introduced to him at -Vernon Lushington's rooms in Doctors' Commons. -The next day he visited Rossetti in his -studio at Blackfriars, and saw him working on <i>Fra -Pace</i>. Thus was laid the foundation of an alliance -which even more potently than the "P.R.B." has -changed the face of art in England, and which -resulted in the formation of a group that for -combined poetic, literary, and artistic power is -unapproached in the history of the nation. -Incidentally, it was this visit that determined -Burne-Jones—hankering after art, but predestined for -the Church—to become a painter; and no one -can fail to be struck with the evidence of -Rossetti's influence upon his early work. -</p> - -<p> -To the "Oxford and Cambridge Magazine," -William Morris's organ, which ran for the twelve -months of 1856, Rossetti contributed "The -Burden of Nineveh," "The Blessed Damozel" -(a little altered from the "Germ" version), and -"The Staff and Scrip." -</p> - -<p> -By the end of 1856 Burne-Jones and Morris -had left Oxford and were settled in London, -occupying the rooms at 17, Red Lion Square, -which had formerly served as a studio for Rossetti -and Deverell. Both were under the spell of -Rossetti's influence. The <i>ménage</i> at Red Lion -Square lasted till 1859, and was a rallying point -for all members of the circle. "From the incidents -that occurred or were invented there," says -Mr. Mackail, "a sort of Book of the Hundred -Merry Tales gradually was formed, of which -Morris was the central figure." The rooms were -"the quaintest in all London," as Burne-Jones -wrote, "hung with brasses of old knights and -drawings of Albert Dürer"; and in order to -furnish them recourse had to be had to invention. -A local joiner was engaged to manufacture -furniture from Morris's own designs: "intensely -mediaeval" was Rossetti's description of it to a -friend, "tables and chairs like incubi and -succubi." Next came the idea of painting pictures -on walls, cupboards, and doors, about the time -that Morris was planning to build himself at -Upton, in the neighbourhood of Bexley Heath, -a "palace of art" the like of which should never -have been seen. In the general enthusiasm -Rossetti set to and designed a pair of panels for -a cabinet—the subject of his early pen-and-ink -drawing, <i>The Salutation of Beatrice</i>, representing -in two compartments Dante meeting Beatrice in -Florence, and again in Paradise. -</p> - -<p> -At the risk of repetition, one may mention -once more a side of the movement which is apt -to be overshadowed by its far-reaching results; -namely, the light-heartedness and sense of fun -which prevailed amongst this band of artistic -pioneers. There was nothing of the mawkish -affectation which discredited the aesthetes who -came after. When Burne-Jones was down at -Upton, helping to decorate the Red House in -1860, Rossetti wrote to a mutual friend: "I wish -you were in town, to see you sometimes, for I -literally see no one now except Madox Brown -pretty often, and even he is gone to join Morris, -who is out of reach at Upton, and with them is -married Jones painting the inner walls of the -house that Top built (Morris was always called -'Topsy' by his friends). But as for the -neighbours, when they see men pourtrayed by Jones -upon the walls, the images of the Chaldeans -pourtrayed (by <i>him!</i>) in Extract Vermilion, exceeding -all probability in dyed attire upon their heads, -after the manner of no Babylonians of any -Chaldea, the land of anyone's nativity—as soon as -they see them with their eyes, shall they not -account him doting and send messengers into -Colney Hatch?" -</p> - -<p> -During the long vacation of 1857 Rossetti -went up to Oxford with Morris on a visit to the -architect, Benjamin Woodward, who was at work -upon a debating hall for the Union Society, and -seeing an opportunity for mural decoration of a -kind never previously attempted in England in -the new hall of the Union, he became fired with -an idea for carrying it out. The hall was a long -building, with an apse at each end, and a gallery -running all the way round. In this gallery were -bookcases, and above the cases were ten semi-circular -bays, each pierced with a pair of circular -windows. These bays, it was suggested, should -be painted with scenes from the Arthurian legend, -and the roof, as part of the general scheme, was -to be decorated in a harmonious manner. A -building committee was in charge of the operations, -and without any clear idea of its responsibilities -or restrictions it fell in with Rossetti's -proposal that he and a select band of artists should -execute the work gratuitously, but that the Union -should defray their expenses at Oxford and should -provide all necessary materials. The time -estimated for completing the work was six weeks. -Seven artists, including Rossetti, Burne-Jones, -and Morris, were enlisted without much trouble, -the remaining four being Arthur Hughes, Spencer -Stanhope, Val Prinsep, and J. Hungerford Pollen, -who had already won much credit from his -painting of the roof in Merton College Chapel. -Rossetti took as subjects for two bays <i>Launcelot -asleep before the Chapel of the Sanc Grael</i> and -<i>Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival receiving -the Sanc Grael</i>. The others chose similar themes, -but in a short time it was found that the work -in hand was considerably more than had been -anticipated, though abundant evidence remains -of the enthusiasm which was put into it. -</p> - -<p> -Unfortunately the delight was not to be of -long duration. Almost before the pictures were -finished they had begun to decay, the effect of -tempera laid direct upon a new brick wall, with -no preparation but a layer of whitewash, being -quite inadequate to resist the English climate. -Several of the designs were never completed. -In 1859 some arrangement was entered into by -the Union with a Mr. Riviere to fill the three -blank compartments; and after that the ill-fated -undertaking, on which so much pains and so -much skill had been spent, gradually faded away -and resolved itself into what it is to-day, a dingy -blur of colours in which may be distinguished -the occasional vague form of an armoured limb -or a patch of flowery background. -</p> - -<p> -Rossetti's connection with Oxford, and its -intercalation in his work, does not end with the -Union paintings. It was destined to furnish him -with a more lasting influence—a face that to the -end of his life haunted his pictures with an austere -and solemn beauty, dominating and transforming -all other kinds, so as even to give rise to the -suggestion—a shallow and ignorant one, it is -true—that he painted but one type of face. It -was at the theatre, one night in the summer -of 1857, that Rossetti and Burne-Jones found -themselves sitting near two youthful Misses -Burden, daughters of an Oxford resident, the -elder of whom, by her striking features and -wealth of dark wavy hair, appealed so forcibly -to Rossetti's painter eye that he obtained an -introduction in order to ask for sittings. A -pen-and-ink head called <i>Queen Guenevere</i>, now in -the National Gallery at Dublin, and evidently -intended to replace the earlier studies done for -<i>Launcelot at the Shrine</i>, was one of the first -fruits of this acquaintance, which, for the rest, -does not seem to have become really prolific of -results until several years later, when Rossetti's -wife was dead. In the meantime William Morris, -whose admiration went even further, had married -Miss Burden, and the casual relationship of -painter and sitter which existed between her -and Rossetti deepened into a friendship, in which -Miss Siddal participated, both up to and after -her marriage. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER VI -<br><br> -WORK FROM 1858 TO 1862 -</h3> - -<p> -The year 1858, while the Oxford affair -was still in train, saw the completion of -two pen-and-ink drawings which had been in hand -a long time. These were <i>Hamlet and Ophelia</i> -and <i>Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the -Pharisee</i>. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-066"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-066.jpg" alt="MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE."> -<br> -MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE. -</p> - -<p> -The drawing of <i>Mary Magdalene</i>, perhaps -the most perfect of all Rossetti's early works, -was begun at least by 1853, and continued to -occupy his thoughts in one form or another -for many years. Rossetti wrote a sonnet for the -picture, which is found in his first volume, -called "Poems." -</p> - -<p> -Another subject finished in 1858 was <i>Mary -in the House of John</i>. The scene is at late -twilight, or in an eastern night, the red glow of -the sky casting a purple light over the clustered -dwellings of Nazareth, with deep blue hills -beyond. In the interior of the room are Mary -and St. John, the latter seated in shadow, engaged -in striking light from a flint; whilst Mary, standing -before the tall window, fills a hanging lamp -from a jar of oil. -</p> - -<p> -Another important item to be recorded under -1858 is a water-colour called <i>Before the Battle</i>, -painted for Rossetti's American friend, Professor -Norton, of Harvard. -</p> - -<p> -The most important work of 1859 is a highly-finished -little head in oils, called <i>Bocca Baciata</i>, -which was bought by the late Mr. Boyce. The -model for this was Miss Fanny Cornforth, -afterwards Mrs. Schott, whose florid type of beauty -reappears in a series of sensuous pictures of the -kind that Rossetti began to paint after 1862—<i>Aurelia</i> -(<i>Fazio's Mistress</i>), <i>The Blue Bower</i>, <i>The -Lady at her Toilet</i>, <i>Lilith</i>, and<i> The Lady of the -Fan</i>. These pictures, and numerous portraits in -oil and water-colour, give a sufficiently recognizable -idea of this model, who exercised almost as -remarkable an influence over Rossetti's life as -over his art. -</p> - -<p> -<i>Bonifazio's Mistress</i>, a specially charming little -water-colour, was painted in 1860. It shows a -lady (dressed in the same brightly be-ribanded -flounces as Lucretia Borgia wears in the little -1851 group) who has been sitting to her lover, -a painter, when suddenly she has fallen back in -her chair, dead. -</p> - -<p> -The connection of this subject with the poet, -Bonifazio (or Fazio) degli Uberti is entirely -fanciful. There can be little doubt that it was -intended to illustrate Rossetti's own story of -"St. Agnes of Intercession." <i>Bonifazio's Mistress</i> -has no connection whatever either in subject or -composition with the oil painting of the same -name done in 1863, and afterwards re-named -<i>Aurelia</i>. The latter is simply a three-quarter -length figure of a lady plaiting her hair before a -toilet glass. -</p> - -<p> -This (1860) was the year of Rossetti's marriage, -as has already been stated, and in June he was -at Paris on his honeymoon. While there he -executed two pen-and-ink drawings, one of which -was the design of <i>How they met Themselves</i>, -done to replace the earlier version of 1851, which -had been lost. The other represents a scene -from Boswell's "Life of Johnson," a curious -source of inspiration for Rossetti, rendered more -remarkable from the fact that the incident chosen -is of a humorous and spicy character. Dr. Maxwell -told the story how two young women -from Staffordshire had come up to town to -consult Johnson about Methodism, in which they -were much interested. "Come," said he, "you -pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the -Mitre, and we will talk over that subject"; -which they did, and after dinner he took one of -them on his knee, and fondled her for half-an-hour -together. -</p> - -<p> -In 1861 Rossetti's translations from the Italian -poets were at last published, together with the -"Vita Nuova." Rossetti thought out a very -charming design of two lovers kissing in a -rose-garden, which he proposed to etch on copper for -the title-page. The plate, however, displeased -him, and he destroyed it. The central idea of -this design reappears in <i>Love's Greeting</i>, a panel -designed for the Red House, and in a water-colour -of 1864 inscribed <i>Roman de la Rose</i>, in -which Love appears overshadowing the kissing -pair with his wings. -</p> - -<p> -In 1861 was painted, on a little panel, 10 by -8 inches, a portrait of Mrs. Rossetti, called <i>Regina -Cordium</i> or <i>The Queen of Hearts</i>, showing just -the head and bare shoulders, on a gold ground, -behind a parapet on which rests one hand holding -a purple pansy. A more important outcome of -the year is the fine composition known as -<i>Cassandra</i>. The subject is a scene on the walls -of Troy just before Hector's last battle. Rossetti -wrote two sonnets for the drawing which will be -found in his volume of "Poems." -</p> - -<p> -About this time (1861-1862) the firm of -Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co. was just -being started, with William Morris, Rossetti, -Faulkner, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Webb, -and others as the active promoters of a venture -which was to reform the arts of decoration and -furniture making. Tapestry, furniture, wallpapers, -stained glass, painted panels, and later -on carpet-weaving and dyeing, were among the -industries to which this band of highly original -artists and designers turned their attention. The -Anglo-Catholic movement and the demand for -decoration of an aesthetic and sensuous kind -gave the new firm plenty to do, amongst their -first commissions being the embellishment of -two new churches then being built by Bodley, -St. Martin's on the Hill, Scarborough, and -St. Michael's at Brighton. For the former Rossetti -executed a design for two pulpit panels and -several windows, achieving from the very first -a mastery over this branch of art which few -designers have surpassed. It is characteristic of -his original mind that he went right back to the -fundamental principles of <i>vitraux</i>, paying no -attention whatever to the elaborations which -had grown round them, and recognizing that a -picture which was transparent, that is, seen by -transmitted light, must be conceived in flat tones -and not made to give the illusion of shading, as -can be done in the case of a surface from which -the light is reflected. -</p> - -<p> -The <i>Paolo and Francesca</i> water-colour is -generally attributed to the year 1861, although -no particular authority exists for this beyond an -auctioneer's catalogue. This beautiful little -water-colour represents the first compartment -of the double subject. In it Paolo and Francesca -are seated before a window bearing the arms of -Malatesta. Outside is a bright and sunny -landscape. The lovers have stopped in the midst of -their reading to give the fatal kiss that sealed -their doom. -</p> - -<p> -In 1861 or 1862 Rossetti designed two woodcuts -for his sister Christina's "Goblin Market," -published by Messrs. Macmillan. In 1865 he -drew two more designs for "The Prince's -Progress." The covers for these two little volumes, -as well as for his own when they appeared, were -designed by Rossetti, and are as original and -effective and tasteful as his decorative work -invariably was. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER VII -<br><br> -SETTLING AT CHELSEA. WORK, 1863 TO 1874 -</h3> - -<p> -After the tragic death of his wife, on -February 11th, 1862, Rossetti could no -longer bear to occupy the rooms they had -inhabited at Chatham Place, and began to seek for -others. In the meantime he took lodgings for a -few months in a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. -He had a fancy for getting away from the crowd -of London, and yet for being near the river, -which caused him to examine one or two old -houses in the then by no means fashionable -neighbourhoods of Hammersmith and Chelsea. -He finally decided in favour of No. 16, Cheyne -Walk, a house which from some traditional -association with Queen Elizabeth became known -as Tudor House and is now called Queen's -House. It is also said to have been described -by Thackeray in "Esmond" as the home of the -old Countess of Chelsey. Here he started a joint -<i>ménage</i> with Mr. Swinburne, Mr. George Meredith, -and (at casual intervals) his brother. -Mr. Meredith's subtenancy was not of long duration; -in point of fact he never really occupied -his rooms. But Mr. Swinburne remained long -enough to have shared very considerably the -traditions which soon grew up round Tudor House, -and whilst there wrote the most famous of his -dramas, "Atalanta in Calydon," as well as many -of the "Poems and Ballads," and a portion of -"Chastelard." The gloom which at first had -threatened Rossetti gradually wore away before -the robustness of his nature; settling into and -furnishing his house on new, and at that time -practically unheard-of, principles, afforded -abundant distraction; and for some years, until his -own illness intervened, Rossetti played the genial -and charming host to many old friends of his -intimate group, and to an increasing circle of new -ones who were attracted by sympathy or by -the growing glamour of his name. -</p> - -<p> -One of the charms of the house at Chelsea -was its long garden, more than an acre in extent, -with an avenue of trees on to which the studio -looked. As time went on this garden became -tenanted with a miscellaneous assortment of birds -and animals, round which a veritable saga of -anecdote has gathered. These, with his affection -for bric-à-brac, his spontaneous generosity, his -ever-ready wit, his love of good stories, and his -endless flow of <i>vers d'esprit</i>, form a contrast to -the somewhat sombre atmosphere in which he -sought his inspirations, and in which, owing to -the seclusion of his later years, he was popularly -supposed to live. -</p> - -<p> -To resume the thread of Rossetti's work, the -well-known picture of <i>Beata Beatrix</i>, now in the -National Collection, bears date 1863, but was -only partially painted in that year, the completion -being long delayed. One reason for the difficulty -may have been that Rossetti desired to make -this picture a living memorial of his wife, and -that no regular studies of the face had been done -for it. What he felt about it we may gather from -the fact that for some years he refused to send -out a replica, even when replicas had become a -regular and lucrative form of business. In the -end, however, he was prevailed upon to paint -more than one repetition of the subject, none -however equal in quality to the original. -</p> - -<p> -To 1863 belongs a small oil picture called -<i>Helen of Troy</i>, a full-faced study, head and -shoulders only, of a rather pretty model, with -masses of rippling yellow hair. The last of the -<i>St. George</i> subjects also belongs to this year, and -represents St. George in the act of slaying the -dragon; a water-colour version of one of the -incidents in a series designed for windows, but -treated a little differently. Next come three small -subjects: <i>Belcolore</i>, a very finely painted head of -a girl biting a rosebud; <i>Brimfull</i>, a water-colour -sketch of a lady stooping to sip from a glass; -and thirdly, a picture called <i>A Lady in Yellow</i>, -belonging to Mr. Beresford Heaton. We are -now entering upon the period when Rossetti -ceased to paint small heads and began to devote -himself to larger single figure subjects, lavishing -upon them the wealth of his fine imagination, -and surrounding them with quaint and beautiful -accessories such as he alone knew how to select. -The first picture of this type, and in point of -execution one of the very finest, is <i>Fazio's -Mistress</i>, a small oil painting dated 1863, but -considerably altered ten years later, when Rossetti -renamed it <i>Aurelia</i>. -</p> - -<p> -The year 1864 contains two or three more -prominent examples of Rossetti's attraction -towards a luxuriant and seductive type of feminine -beauty. The most important is <i>Lady Lilith</i>, -which embodies perhaps the fullest expression -of Rossetti's power in this direction. Adam's -mythical first wife is shown as a beautiful woman -leaning back on a couch combing her long fair -hair, while with cold dispassionateness she -surveys her features in a hand mirror. "Body's -Beauty" Rossetti called the picture afterwards, -contrasting it with his conception of "Soul's -Beauty," the <i>Sibylla Palmifera</i> of 1866-70. -</p> - -<p> -Still in the same vein—of "Women and -Flowers"—is the next great picture begun in -1864, the <i>Venus Verticordia</i>. The principal version -of this, an oil painting, was not finished until -some time in 1868. The earliest in point of date -is a little water-colour commissioned as a replica, -which was delivered during the year. The picture -represents the goddess of beauty undraped and -standing in a bower of clustering honeysuckle -which hides her to the waist. In her left hand -she holds an apple, in her right a dart upon -which is poised a sulphur butterfly. Others are -hovering round. Behind is the grove of Venus, -and a blue bird winging its way through space. -</p> - -<p> -The remaining productions of 1864 are all in -water-colour. They include <i>Morning Music</i>, -<i>Monna Pomona</i>, <i>Sir Galahad</i>, <i>Sir Bors</i>, and <i>Sir -Percival</i>—belonging to Rossetti's earlier manner; -<i>Roman de la Rose</i>, and <i>The Madness of Ophelia</i>, -a scene representing Laertes leading Ophelia -away, whilst the king and queen are looking on. -</p> - -<p> -In 1865 was painted the <i>Blue Bower</i>, a picture -of the <i>Lilith</i> group, done from the <i>Lilith</i> model, -and representing in a setting of gorgeous blue -and green harmonies a woman playing upon a -dulcimer. <i>The Merciless Lady</i>, which was painted -in 1865, is a return to Rossetti's early romantic -compositions, and is a particularly charming -specimen. Nor was it his only water-colour of -this year, though indisputably the best. For -Mr. Craven he painted the subject called <i>Washing -Hands</i>—with the exception of <i>Dr. Johnson at the -Mitre</i>, his one experiment in (eighteenth century -costume. -</p> - -<p> -Another called <i>A Fight for a Woman</i>, is one -of Rossetti's most spirited drawings. In point of -invention this design goes back to very early -days, as is proved by the existence of tentative -sketches dating from about 1853. To the same -date belongs the oil painting called originally -<i>Bella e Buona</i>, but renamed by Rossetti <i>Il -Ramoscello</i> in 1873, when it was taken back by -him for retouching. It is a half-length figure, -dressed in slate green, and holding an acorn -branch. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-078"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-078.jpg" alt="THE BELOVED."> -<br> -THE BELOVED. -</p> - -<p> -We now come to one of the most beautiful -pictures, if not the most beautiful, that Rossetti -ever painted—<i>The Beloved</i>. No one who has -not seen it, with a warm sunlight bringing out -its colour, can form the most remote conception -of its brilliance. "I mean it to be like jewels," -wrote Rossetti to its late owner, Mr. Rae; and -jewel-like it flashes. The picture itself is -described in a later chapter, amongst those selected -for illustration. -</p> - -<p> -In 1866, the year in which the <i>Beloved</i> was -finished, Rossetti started upon a second great -picture of the same type, the <i>Monna Vanna</i>, a -three-quarter length figure draped in magnificent -gold and white brocade, and toying with a large -fan. This was commissioned by Mr. Rae, as was -also <i>Sibylla Palmifera</i>, the third of the series, -begun about the same time but not completed -until 1870. Rossetti's sonnet entitled "Soul's -Beauty" describes the subject—a Sibyl seated -on a throne and bearing a branch of palm. -</p> - -<p> -The record of 1866 closes with an oil portrait -of the painter's mother, towards whom at all -periods of his life his devotion was exemplary; a -large crayon drawing of Christina Rossetti, with -her thoughtful face resting on her hands; and -two designs for her second volume of poems, -"The Prince's Progress." -</p> - -<p> -In 1867 Rossetti painted the oil <i>Christmas -Carol</i> for Mr. Rae, an entirely different subject -from the early water-colour. This is a half-length -figure of a girl, draped in a gold and purple robe -of Eastern stuff, and playing upon a species of -lute. Two small but pretty pictures of the same -date are <i>Joli Cœur</i> and <i>Monna Rosa</i>. The first -represents a coy-looking maiden fingering her -necklace, whilst <i>Monna Rosa</i> is chiefly a study in -beautiful colour, representing a lady in a dress -of pale emerald green, with golden fruit worked -upon it, plucking a rose from a tree planted in -a blue jar. -</p> - -<p> -The next item of 1867 is the exquisite <i>Loving -Cup</i>. The subject is a lady raising a golden cup -to her lips, and standing against a background -of fair embroidered linen, surmounted by a row -of heavy brazen plates. -</p> - -<p> -The year 1868 was cut into by Rossetti's -breakdown in health and sudden anxiety about -his eyesight. Nevertheless, he painted the portrait -of Mrs. William Morris, in a blue dress, seated -at a table before a glass of flowers, which many -competent judges regard as one of his very finest -pictures, and which was the prelude to that long -series of noble canvases by which he has become -best known to the public. Mrs. Morris has lent -her portrait to the National Gallery, where it -hangs (at Millbank) beside the <i>Ecce Ancilla</i> and -the <i>Beata Beatrix</i>. Other productions of the -same year, which closes the period of Rossetti's -best work, were <i>Bionda del Balcone</i>; <i>Aurea -Catena</i>, a fine drawing of Mrs. Morris; two -studies for a future picture, <i>La Pia</i>, and some -small replicas of no particular importance. -</p> - -<p> -The insomnia which began to attack Rossetti -in his thirty-ninth year, and which was the -indirect cause of his subsequent breakdown, led -him in 1869 to drop work for a time and to take -a holiday at Penkill Castle in Ayrshire, the -residence of an old friend. The visit is of -interest, because it was not until this occasion -that he gave a serious thought to the publishing -of his early poems, some of which were still -going about in manuscript in a more or less -finished condition, though others were buried in -his wife's grave. As a relief from the strain of -painting, moreover, he began to write again. -His first idea was to have the poems, such of -them as he could collect or recall from memory, -set up in type to keep by him as a nucleus for a -possible volume; gradually, however, the idea -of publishing outright grew or was forced upon -him; and the last obstacle to this, the loss of so -much of his early work, was finally removed one -day in October, 1869, when, after a consent -wrung from him very reluctantly, the grave was -opened, and the manuscript poems recovered. -In 1870 the book appeared, having as publisher -Mr. F S. Ellis, of King Street, Covent Garden. -The poems proved an immediate and lucrative -success, and were favourably reviewed except -for the single attack made upon them in a -pseudonymous article by the late Mr. Buchanan. -The effect of even one attack, however, and it -was admittedly a very unfair and bitter attack, -on a man of Rossetti's temperament, suffering -from nervous fancies, and troubled by want of -sleep, was disastrous. He viewed as a great -conspiracy against him what other men, in -sounder health, would have been able to -disregard, and the effect was unhappily permanent. -He had begun to acquire the habit of taking -chloral as a cure for sleeplessness, without -knowing, what is well known now, its lamentable -after-effect, and for a short time, if one may -accept his brother's judgment, Rossetti was -hardly to be regarded as sane. A severe -breakdown caused him to be removed once more to -Scotland, where after a complete rest he was -enabled to resume painting, and in September, -1872, he joined with Mr. and Mrs. Morris in -taking the old Elizabethan Manor House of -Kelmscott, on the borders of Oxfordshire and -Gloucestershire. His work here consisted to a -large extent in repainting many of his old pictures, -which he had sent to him for the purpose. In -this way he worked upon the <i>Lilith</i>, <i>Beloved</i>, -<i>Monna Vanna</i>, and other important canvases, -including even the little early <i>Ecce Ancilla -Domini</i>. Rossetti left Kelmscott in July, 1874, -and returned to London; and that was the end -of his connection with the quiet Gloucestershire -retreat, which thenceforward became associated -solely with the life of William Morris. -</p> - -<p> -During the years 1869 to 1871, and the two -following which Rossetti spent at Kelmscott, he -was at work on a number of fairly important -new canvases in addition to the retouching of -old ones. A sprinkling of crayons and small -pictures also has to be mentioned. These include -the <i>Rosa Triplex</i>, a study of three heads from -one sitter, now in the Tate Gallery, and <i>Penelope</i>, -a crayon drawing of a seated figure, which is -unique in the respect that it was done from a -favourite model of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. -</p> - -<p> -Throughout the year 1870, with one or two -exceptions, Mrs. Morris's is the face which figures -in Rossetti's work. It is to be seen, for instance, -in the fine picture called <i>Mariana</i>, really a first -attempt at the portrait in the Tate Gallery lent -by Mrs. Morris, to which a second figure was -subsequently added. -</p> - -<p> -In 1871 he painted the picture of <i>Pandora</i>, -of which Mr. Swinburne says, in his "Essays and -Studies," that "it is amongst the mightiest of -all Rossetti's works in its God-like terror and -imperial trouble of beauty." The figure is clad -in a long robe of Venetian red, and is holding -the fateful casket, from which issues a red smoke, -curling all round into clustering shapes, like -flame-winged seraph curses. <i>Water-willow</i>, a -little quarter-length figure with a river landscape -behind, done in the same year, is interesting -from the fact that it is a portrait of Mrs. Morris, -and that the view represents Kelmscott. -</p> - -<p> -We now come to the picture of <i>Dante's Dream</i>, -begun in 1870 and finished towards the close -of 1871, Rossetti's most important work in the -opinion of many people, and considerably his -largest. The subject is that of the little early -water-colour painted in 1856, namely the vision -related by Dante as having come to him of -Beatrice lying in death, and the angels bearing -upward her soul in the form of "an exceedingly -white cloud." The picture is more fully described -elsewhere. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-084"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-084.jpg" alt="MARIANA."> -<br> -MARIANA. -</p> - -<p> -Impressive as <i>Dante's Dream</i> may be, it is -not to be classed on all grounds with Rossetti's -finest work. Yet it has been the object of -boundless admiration. It has even been said -that if no other of Rossetti's works survived but -this and the <i>Beata Beatrix</i>, they alone would be -enough to ensure him a place among the few -great artists of the world. -</p> - -<p> -The next great subject in point of date, namely -<i>Proserpine</i>, has a complicated history attached -to it. Rossetti began the picture upon canvas -four times in 1872, with ill-success. He took it -up again in 1873 and painted a fine version -which was spoilt in straining. This was replaced -in the same year by a second fine one which -arrived at its destination damaged by an accident -in transit. A third large picture had therefore to -be painted in 1874, which still exists, and finally -the damaged picture was patched and partially -repainted in 1877, which is the date it bears in -the corner. This is the finest and best known -version, and is the one of which an autotype -reproduction has been published. There are -sundry other replicas and crayon studies of the -subject which have not been mentioned, but of -the earlier attempts nothing now seems to be -left in the form of pictures, the canvases having -been cut down into the form of single heads. In -all these pictures the subject is the same. The -ravished bride of Pluto is seen standing in a -corridor of Hades, lighted by a bluish -subterranean light, and holding in one hand the -pomegranate of which she ate one fatal seed -that bound her for ever to her destiny. In none -of the pictures done from Mrs. Morris do we -find so appropriate the distant air of melancholy -with which the painter contrived to invest her -features. -</p> - -<p> -Of the other pictures painted at Kelmscott -perhaps the most successful is <i>Veronica Veronese</i>, -supposed to be taken from a passage in the -letters of Girolamo Ridolfi, which describes how -a lady, after listening to the notes of a bird, tries -to commit them to paper, and finally to reproduce -them on her violin. In the picture the Lady -Veronica is robed in a rich gown of Rossetti's -favourite green, with yellow daffodils in a glass -beside her. The bird, a canary, is perched on a -cage above her. She sits at a cabinet, on which -is a sheet with the musical notes she has been -writing down; and listening with dreamy blue -eyes to the bird's song she lets her thumb wander -over the strings of the violin suspended on the -wall before her. -</p> - -<p> -Before leaving the year 1872 there is a minor -but interesting episode to record. In this year -Rossetti took up an old background of trees and -foliage which he had painted in 1850, in his -Pre-Raphaelite days, when studying with Holman -Hunt at Knole Park, near Sevenoaks. Nothing -had ever been done to it since; but now -Rossetti painted in two women playing instruments -and a group of dancing figures, for which very -charming crayon studies were made, and called -it <i>The Bower Meadow</i>. This interesting -combination of early and late styles now belongs to -Sir J. D. Milburn, of Newcastle. -</p> - -<p> -<i>La Ghirlandata</i>, the next great oil picture by -Rossetti, is dated 1873, and is one of those -which has already crossed the Atlantic to the -bourne whence works of art but seldom return. -The picture represents a lady playing upon a -garlanded harp, in the midst of a forest clearing, -where angel faces peer down upon her, and -mystical blue birds cleave the air. The whole -is a subtle blending of subdued colour, where -blue and green strive for the mastery. Beautiful -as it is in these respects, <i>La Ghirlandata</i> lacks -the invention and the interest of Rossetti's more -vigorous early work. -</p> - -<p> -<i>The Damsel of the Sanc Grael</i>, painted in -1874 for Mr. Rae, is a very different picture -from the little water-colour of 1856-7. There -was a simplicity and primitiveness about the -latter which accorded well with the mediaeval -sanctity surrounding the subject. When Rossetti -came to paint the picture again in his later -manner, he represented the austere damsel of -the holy mysteries as a handsome girl with -flowing chestnut hair, bright lips, and languishing -eyes, sumptuously robed in a red gown with -a heavily-flowered mantle. In painting this -picture Rossetti probably did not seek much -beyond mere beauty of form and decoration, in -the attainment of which he has succeeded -perfectly; and the same may be said in part of a -better-known production of the same year, the -much-praised <i>Roman Widow</i>, which represents -a lady seated by the marble tomb of her husband. -A large unfinished canvas, painted simply in -grisaille, called <i>The Boat of Love</i>, was begun at -this time but abandoned in 1881. After Rossetti's -death it was bought for the Birmingham -Corporation Art Gallery, where it is now exhibited. -It may be mentioned that the Birmingham -Gallery possesses an unequalled collection of -Rossetti's drawings, recently acquired (1906) through -the munificence of two or three local donors. -</p> - -<p> -One other subject dated 1874 is intimately -bound up with Kelmscott. This is an oil picture -called by a variety of names—<i>Marigolds</i>, <i>Fleurs -de Marie</i>, <i>The Gardener's Daughter</i>, etc., but -representing in actual fact a young girl standing -in a room, and reaching up to place a mass of -yellow marigolds and lilies in a flower vase upon -a high cabinet of inlaid wood. The model is -said to have been the gardener's daughter at -Kelmscott, not that the detail signifies, except -as connecting the picture with the place. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHAPTER VIII -<br><br> -CLOSE OF THE RECORD. 1874-1882 -</h3> - -<p> -One of the first incidents to be recorded -after Rossetti's return to London in 1874 -was the dissolution of the partnership of Morris, -Marshall, Faulkner and Co., and the re-construction -of the firm under the sole management of -William Morris. The dissolution was not effected -without some unpleasantness, resulting in the -estrangement of Morris and Brown. Morris and -Rossetti never actually quarrelled; but from -1874 onwards the two men seldom saw each -other, Rossetti's recluse habits of life being -possibly responsible to some extent for the -severance. -</p> - -<p> -The latter part of 1875 and the first half of -1876 Rossetti spent at Bognor, and after that -he visited the Cowper-Temples (afterwards Lord -and Lady Mount Temple) at Broadlands in -Hampshire, being then engaged upon his picture -of <i>The Blessed Damozel</i>. -</p> - -<p> -In 1877 he had a very severe physical illness, -due to an uraemic affection which had been set -up in 1872, and which eventually was the active -cause of his death. He was removed to a little -cottage near Herne Bay, and at one time gave -up all hope of resuming his profession. "At -last," says Mr. William Rossetti, "the power and -the determination returned simultaneously; he -drew an admirable crayon-group of our mother -and sister, two others equally good of the latter, -and yet another of our mother. Weather had -been favourable, spirits and energy revived, and -he came back to town nerved once more for the -battle of life and of art." The group of Mrs. and -Miss Rossetti is now in the National Portrait -Gallery. -</p> - -<p> -After 1877 Rossetti seldom if ever went beyond -the doors of No. 16, Cheyne Walk, and as he -suffered from fits of melancholy, and disliked -being alone, a few faithful friends formed the -practice of coming to visit him by turns. -Mr. Theodore Watts was a more constant attendant, -and had a bed at his disposal. A good number -of acquaintances also frequented the house, some -of them much more intimate than others and -dating back in their relations to about 1866. -Among these may be mentioned the artists -J. M. Whistler and Alphonse Legros, Frederick -Shields, F. A. Sandys and Fairfax Murray. -</p> - -<p> -In 1878, or thereabouts, Rossetti's devotion -to poetry received a fresh impulse, and he set -himself assiduously to the production of sonnets. -It was not until 1880, however, that he began -really to compile materials for a new volume. -In that year he wrote "The White Ship," and -in the year following "The King's Tragedy." Finally, -by March of 1881 the copy for "Ballads -and Sonnets" was complete, and was accepted -by Messrs. Ellis and White on the same terms -as the first book. At the same time the latter, -which was by now out of print, underwent some -material alterations and was re-published in a -new form. -</p> - -<p> -The pictures for 1875 include <i>La Bella Mano</i>, -which represents a lady washing her "beautiful -hands" in a scalloped basin of brass; also some -of the studies for the <i>Blessed Damozel</i>, a finished -pen-and-ink study for a great picture of 1877, -the <i>Astarte Syriaca</i>, and a large pencil drawing -called <i>The Question</i> or <i>The Sphinx</i>. -</p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-092"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-092.jpg" alt="ASTARTE SYRIACA. (By permission of the Art Gallery Committee of the Manchester Corporation.)"> -<br> -ASTARTE SYRIACA.<br> -(By permission of the Art Gallery Committee <br> -of the Manchester Corporation.) -</p> - -<p> -The following year was mainly devoted to the -<i>Blessed Damozel</i>, an attempt to realize on canvas -Rossetti's early poem which first appeared in -"The Germ." The picture is a very fine one. -Rossetti filled in the background behind the -stooping figure of the damozel with a heavenly -landscape, in which were countless pairs of -embracing lovers. In 1877 he added a predella -representing the earthly lover gazing up through -space, and in 1879 he painted a replica, omitting -the background of lovers and substituting two -angel heads rather suggestive of those which -occur in <i>La Ghirlandata</i>. -</p> - -<p> -The year 1877 contains but three items, two -of which are, however, the important oil-pictures -<i>Astarte Syriaca</i> and <i>The Sea-Spell</i>. The third -was a <i>Magdalen</i> bearing the vase of spikenard. -</p> - -<p> -<i>Astarte Syriaca</i> is a massive figure, with face -and hair strongly reminiscent of Mrs. Morris. It -was bought at its first owner's death for the -Corporation Art Gallery of Manchester. -</p> - -<p> -The two finished items of 1878—for as the -years advance the output grows less and less—are -<i>A Vision of Fiammetta</i> and a water-colour -study of a head called <i>Bruna Brunelleschi</i>. -<i>Fiammetta</i> is a fine and striking conception, -representing on a life-size scale the lady beloved -by Boccaccio, to whom he addressed the sonnet -which begins: "Round her red garland and her -golden hair, I saw a fire about Fiammetta's head." The -sitter for <i>Fiammetta</i> was Mrs. W. J. Stillman. -</p> - -<p> -<i>La Donna della Finestra</i> was painted in 1879. -This "Lady of the Window," also known as -"The Lady of Pity," is she who in Dante's "Vita -Nuova" is described as looking down upon the -poet one day when he was overcome with grief. -The head is taken from Mrs. Morris, much -modified by the conventions which Rossetti at this -time introduced into all his faces. Not the least -charming feature of the picture is the clustering -mass of beautifully painted fig-leaves growing up -to the balcony in which the lady sits. -</p> - -<p> -During 1880 and 1881 Rossetti was occupied -with three large pictures, <i>The Day Dream</i>, <i>The -Salutation of Beatrice</i>, and <i>La Pia</i>; with <i>Found</i>, -which had been re-commissioned by Mr. William -Graham; and with several replicas, of which the -most important was the smaller <i>Dante's Dream</i>. -</p> - -<p> -<i>The Day Dream</i> is a portrait of Mrs. Morris -seated in the lower branches of a sycamore tree. -<i>La Pia</i>, the last original picture painted by -Rossetti, depicts the story of Pia de' Tolomei, -told in the fifth canto of the "Purgatorio." In -Rossetti's canvas she is seen, sitting forward in -a window, gazing out over the poisonous -Maremma from the fortress where her husband -had placed her to die. <i>Found</i>, which was one of -the first pictures Rossetti attempted, was never -completed. After Rossetti's death, as already -mentioned, Sir Edward Burne-Jones added a little -work to it, and in this condition it was taken over -by the purchaser. It is now in America. -</p> - -<p> -With this we come to an end of Rossetti's -work as a painter. It remains briefly to close the -record of his life. -</p> - -<p> -In September, 1881, Rossetti, accompanied -by Mr. Hall Caine, undertook an expedition to -the lake district of Cumberland; but after a -month his health, which at first had appeared to -benefit, became alarmingly bad, and he returned -hurriedly to London. After a partial recovery -from this illness his work was once more -interrupted in December by an attack of nervous -paralysis, traceable to the effects of the drug he -had been taking. In February, 1882, he was taken -to Birchington-on-Sea, where a cottage had been -placed at his disposal, and here he died on the -10th of April. He was buried, quietly and simply, -in the little churchyard at Birchington, where a -stone monument has been erected by his family -in the form of a Celtic cross designed by Madox -Brown. A memorial window embodying his own -early design of <i>The Passover</i>, adapted by -Mr. Shields, was also set up in the adjoining church. -</p> - -<p> -So passed away, in the fifty-fourth year of his -life, one of the most original artists of our time; -I will not say one of the greatest painters, for that -would invite controversy as to points in which -he was, and knew himself to be, deficient. But -as an artist, as one who saw, and could interpret -and depict beautiful things in a beautiful way, -there can be no two questions about Rossetti's -greatness. Never before has one man blended so -perfectly the sister gifts of poetry and painting -that it was impossible to pronounce in which he -was superior. -</p> - -<p> -To complain, as some have done, of the mediaeval -quality of his subjects is foolish. As well -complain that fairy tales are old. Rossetti was -mediaeval in his thoughts and tastes. Without any -affectation or straining for effect he lived his -intellectual life in a mystical, richly-coloured world -of romantic knights and ladies. These, and not -the hedgerows or buttercups of to-day, were -what came to the surface in his creative moods. -We have witnessed in these latter years a great -revival of romance, springing up in various ways -all over the continent of Europe. Of this revival -in England, on the side of pictorial art, Rossetti -was the fountain head. The gentle melancholy -that pervades his work was derived from his -namesake Dante, to whom he was doubly allied by -ties of birth and sentiment. "He was moreover -driven by something like the same unrelaxing -stress and fervour of temperament, so that even -in middle age it seemed scarcely less true to -say of Rossetti than of Dante himself: -</p> - -<p class="poem"> - 'Like flame within the naked hand,<br> - His body bore his burning heart.'"<br> -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -The direction of his influence, and of the -Pre-Raphaelite movement generally, has been worked -out in a scholarly manner by Mr. Percy Bate, in -a book called "The English Pre-Raphaelite -Painters," where an attempt is made for the first -time to trace the artistic lineage of such diverse -executants as Mr. Spencer Stanhope, Mr. Walter -Crane, Mr. Strudwick, Mrs. de Morgan, Mr. Byam -Shaw, and others. On many of these the -influence of Burne-Jones is more evident than -that of Rossetti; but Burne-Jones himself owed -much to Rossetti at the critical period of his -career. -</p> - -<p> -The subject of Rossetti's art is one that presents -difficulty, on account of the semi-privacy which -surrounded it during the painter's lifetime. The -subject of Rossetti himself is more difficult still. -It has become a sort of fashion to decry the -man, and to forget the genius, among some who -knew him only in his latest years—perhaps by -hearsay mainly. Stories of his want of consideration -for others, his egotism, his shabby treatment -of patrons, his ungoverned temper, are -reeled off with a sort of zest, as though they -summed up the man. But in Rossetti good and -bad were, as usual, inextricably mixed up, with -a strong preponderance towards the former. -There were periods when his brilliant, impulsive, -magnetic personality swamped the most audacious -faults. For a man to stand out above his fellows -is often enough a signal for petty jealousy and -stone-throwing. But in such cases, one may -remark, it is not always a David who prepares the -sling, nor is it always the giant who is on the side -of the Philistines. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> - -<h3> -OUR ILLUSTRATIONS -</h3> - -<p> -Rossetti's record as a painter divides -itself naturally into three periods, beginning -with a fairly numerous series of small -romantic water-colours, which to many people -represent the most charming, if not the most -mature, feature of his work. The subjects for -these were selected largely from Browning, from -the "Vita Nuova" of Dante, and from the -Arthurian legends, themes which appealed -irresistibly to his imaginative mind, and which -formed a common link between the members of -the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the later -group of young Oxford men which included -William Morris and Burne-Jones. Practically -the only oil pictures painted by Rossetti during -this period were the <i>Girlhood of Mary Virgin</i>, -and the little <i>Ecce Ancilla Domini</i>, now in the -Tate Gallery at Millbank. This period came to -an end in 1862, with the death of Rossetti's wife, -and the beautiful <i>Beata Beatrix</i> (also in the -Tate Gallery) which was really a memorial of -her pure features, was followed by a number of -magnificent canvases painted from models of a -rich and sumptuous type, amongst which may be -specially mentioned <i>The Beloved</i>, <i>Monna Vanna</i>, -and <i>Sibylla Palmifera</i>, <i>Lady Lilith</i>, the <i>Venus -Verticordia</i>, <i>The Loving Cup</i>, <i>Veronica Veronese</i>, -<i>The Bower Meadow</i>, <i>La Ghirlandata</i>, <i>Sea Spell</i>, -and <i>La Bella Mano</i>. Lastly comes a large group -of single figure subjects painted from, or based -on, the dark and almost exotic features of -Mrs. William Morris. Of these may be named in -particular <i>Mariana</i>, <i>Pandora</i>, <i>Proserpine</i>, <i>Astarte -Syriaca</i>, <i>La Donna della Finestra</i>, <i>The Day -Dream</i>, and Rossetti's last finished picture <i>La -Pia</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Owing to an invincible dislike for exhibitions, -and the secrecy which in consequence hung over -Rossetti's work, the two earlier groups were -hardly seen by the public at all until after his -death, and his fame, when it spread, was based -chiefly upon the large canvases of the latest -group, which may account for the very general -belief that Rossetti painted only from one type -of sitter, with somewhat exaggerated characteristics, -a further error which may be explained by -the mannerisms which undoubtedly beset him -towards the close of his life, when his health had -failed permanently and his eyesight was no longer -at its best. -</p> - -<p> -Of the earliest pictures, painted for the most -part when Rossetti was little more than a boy, -the following are selected for illustration: -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(1) <i>Ecce Ancilla Domini</i>, which was exhibited -in 1850 and helped to bear the brunt of the -vigorous onslaught which was made in that year -upon the pictures of the newly formed -Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. There is nothing which -could possibly shock us now in the simple, -girl-like figure of Rossetti's Virgin, crouching in -half-awakened awe upon her pallet couch before -the grave-faced angel who is holding out to her -a lily. In many ways it is a far more reverent -treatment of the scene than one is accustomed -to in old Italian canvases with their sumptuously -robed madonnas and angels gay with peacock-wings -and jewelled trappings. The painting, too, -is a masterpiece for so young and inexperienced -an artist, full of skill in the handling of white -draperies and restrained in the use of colour. -The only bright notes in the picture are the -crimson cloth worked with a lily, upon a stand -at the foot of the bed, and the blue curtain at -its head. Everything else is subdued and faint -with the clear light of an English, not an -Eastern, dawn, seen through the open window which -frames the golden head of the angel. -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(2) <i>The Blue Closet</i>. This was painted in -1857, and formed one of a notable series of -small water-colours which once belonged to -William Morris. Although neither Dantesque -nor Arthurian in subject, it is strongly akin to -the latter class in its feeling for mediaeval chivalry -and dress, and has been chosen because both in -colouring and composition it is one of the most -perfect examples of Rossetti's early work. It -represents two queens, the one on the left in red -with green sleeves, and the one on the right in -crimson and gray, playing upon opposite sides -of an inlaid clavichord or dulcimer. Two other -ladies stand behind them singing. Blue tiles on -the wall and on the floor suggest the title, which -in its turn gave rise to one of William Morris's -poems. -</p> - -<p> -The next illustration given, as typical of -Rossetti's intermediate period is— -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(3) <i>Beata Beatrix</i>, which was bequeathed to -the National Collection by Lady Mount Temple, -to whom it formerly belonged. This is so well -known from reproductions that it is unnecessary -to describe it in detail, further than to say that -it represents symbolically the death of Beatrice -as set forth in the "Vita Nuova." Beatrice is -not dead, but is seated on a balcony in a trance, -whilst standing a little way in the background -watching her are Dante and the figure of Love. -A crimson bird, the messenger of Death, is letting -fall a poppy into her lap. Beatrice is robed in -pure green, such as Rossetti loved to paint, with -faint purple sleeves. A dial marks the fateful -hour which was to bear her, on that 9th of June, -1290, "to be glorious under the banner of the -blessed Queen Mary." On the frame, designed -by Rossetti himself, are the first words of the -lamentation from Jeremiah, <i>Quomodo sedet sola -civitas</i>: "How doth the city sit solitary that was -full of people." There is a replica of this picture -in the Corporation Art Gallery of Birmingham, -but it was an unfinished one which was worked -on after Rossetti's death by Madox Brown. -</p> - -<p> -Our next illustration is from a pen-and-ink -drawing, and is typical of a branch of work in -which Rossetti excelled almost as notably as -Burne-Jones. It represents: -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(4) <i>Mary Magdalene at the house of Simon the -Pharisee</i>. The date of this famous drawing is -1853, but it was not actually finished until some -years later. The scene represents a procession -of revellers, amongst whom is the Magdalene -with her lover. In passing the door of Simon -she sees within it the face of Christ, and striving -to leave her companions she tears off the garland -from her head and presses up the steps. Christ -is watching her, and waits for her to reach him, -whilst the others try to bar her passage. A young -doe is cropping the bush which grows against -the wall of the house. -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(5) <i>The Beloved</i>, painted in 1866, is probably -the most perfect of all Rossetti's pictures. The -subject is the Bride of the Psalms advancing to -her lover. "She shall be brought unto the king -in raiment of needlework; the virgins that be -her fellows shall bear her company." In the -centre of the group is the bride, arrayed in such -gorgeous stuffs as only Rossetti could imagine, -of an indescribable green with flowing sleeves -gorgeously embroidered in gold and red. On her -head is an ornament of scarlet oriental featherwork -which flashes like a jewel. Four dark-haired -maidens accompany her, whose heads -form a frame to her own beauty, and in front a -little negro boy, with jewelled collar and headband, -bears a golden vase of roses. The figures, -though life-size, are only painted half-length. The -faces are not of the type usually associated with -Rossetti, and form a sufficient answer in -themselves to those who think that he never painted -from more than one model. The bride's, in -particular, is a face of extraordinary beauty. <i>The -Beloved</i> is one of a fine trio of pictures -commissioned by the late Mr. George Rae of -Birkenhead, the other two being <i>Monna Vanna</i> -and <i>Sibylla Palmifera</i>. As stated already, they -represent Rossetti's prime, when his work was -technically at its best, and before his health had -broken down and driven him into forced or -morbid mannerisms. -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(6) <i>Mariana</i>. This picture belongs to 1870, and -was at one time in the great Graham collection. -The title is taken from "Measure for Measure," -and has no connection with Tennyson's poem. -It was begun originally in 1868, as a portrait of -Mrs. Morris, and in most essentials resembles the -beautiful picture lent by her to the Tate Gallery. -Rossetti discarded the canvas at the time in -favour of the latter version, but took it up again -afterwards, painted in the figure of the boy -singing, and gave it the Shakespeare name with -the legend from the page's song, "Take, O take -those lips away." In the Tate picture Mrs. Morris -is seated at a table before a jar of roses; -here the lady is holding an embroidery frame, -but in each case she wears a gown of marvellous -blue with contrasting chains and jewels. -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p class="capcenter"> -<a id="img-106"></a> -<br> -<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-106.jpg" alt="DANTE'S DREAM."> -<br> -DANTE'S DREAM. -</p> - -<p> -(7) <i>Dante's Dream</i>. This, from its size and -on other grounds is regarded by many critics as -the most important of Rossetti's pictures. It -is certainly the most popular, and if frequent -reproduction be any gauge, stands high amongst -all modern pictures in this respect. Its painting -occupied the greater part of 1870 and 1871, and -was a great physical strain, so much so that in -the year following Rossetti suffered from a severe -break-down which permanently affected his -health. The subject, and practically the composition -also, are the same as in a small water-colour -of 1856, and represents the vision related by Dante -in the "Vita Nuova" as having come to him of -Beatrice lying in death and angels bearing upward -her soul in the form of "an exceedingly white -cloud." Love, in a flame-coloured robe, is leading -him up to the bier, and scarlet birds, typifying -love, are flying in and out of the house. Two -handsome maidens, in flowing gowns of green, -are holding up the ends of the pall which covered -the bier, while Love bends down and kisses the -pale face of the dead lady. Beyond the arched -doorway is seen a glimpse of Florence with the -Arno. The picture when finished proved too large -for its owner's room, and changed hands more -than once before it finally found a resting-place -in the Walker Art Gallery at Liverpool. Rossetti -painted a second rather smaller picture, to replace -it, and added two predellas to the subject. -</p> - -<p><br></p> - -<p> -(8) <i>Astarte Syriaca</i> is a vision of the Syrian -Venus, massive and splendid in form, with vague -eyes typical of her mysteries. She stands, facing -the spectator, in a robe of gorgeous green, which -half reveals the outlines of her body, clasping -with both hands her jewelled girdle. On either -side behind her are attendant spirits bearing -torches. The picture is a good example of -Rossetti's latest work. It was commissioned by -the late Mr. Fry and painted in 1877. It now -adorns the Corporation Art Gallery of Manchester. -</p> - -<p><br><br><br></p> - -<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> - -<h3> -CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF CHIEF PICTURES -</h3> - -<p><br></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 50%"> -OWNER -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1847. Portrait of the Artist (pencil). <i>National Portrait Gallery.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1849. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (oil). <i>Lady Jekyll.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Laboratory (water-colour). <i>C. F. Murray.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1850. Ecce Ancilla (oil). <i>Tate Gallery.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1851. Borgia (water-colour). -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1852. Giotto painting Dante (water-colour). <i>Sir John Aird.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1854. Found (unfinished oil). <i>S. Bancroft, Jun.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Arthur's Tomb (water-colour). <i>S. Pepys Cockerell.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1855. Paolo and Francesca (water-colour diptych). <i>Rae Collection.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Rachel and Leah (water-colour). <i>Beresford Heaton.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1856. Dante's Dream (water-colour). <i>Beresford Heaton.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Fra Pace (water-colour). <i>Lady Jekyll.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1857. Designs for Moxon's Tennyson (wood-cuts). <i>Birmingham Art Gallery.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Chapel before the Lists (water-colour). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Tune of Seven Towers (water-colour). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Blue Closet (water-colour). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Wedding of St. George (water-colour). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Christmas Carol (water-colour). <i>C. F. Murray.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1858. Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon (pen-and-ink). <i>C. Ricketts.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Before the Battle (water-colour) <i>Prof. Norton.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1859. Bocca Baciata (oil). <i>C. F. Murray.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Salutation of Beatrice (oil). <i>F. J. Tennant.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1860. Bonifazio's Mistress (water-colour). <i>C. F. Murray.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Lucrezia Borgia (water-colour). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Seed of David (oil triptych). <i>Llandaff Cathedral.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1861. Dr. Johnson at the Mitre (water-colour). <i>C. F. Murray.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1861. Paolo and Francesca (water-colour). <i>W. R. Moss.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Regina Cordium (oil). <i>Arthur Severn.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Parable of the Vineyard (Morris windows). <i>St. Martin's, Scarborough.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Crucifixion (Morris window). St. Martin's, Scarborough.<br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1862. St. George and the Dragon (cartoons for Morris windows). <i>Birmingham Art Gallery.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Tristram and Yseult (cartoons for Morris windows).<br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1863. Beata Beatrix (oil). <i>Tate Gallery.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Belcolore (oil). <i>C. F. Murray.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Fazio's Mistress (oil). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1864. Lady Lilith (oil). <i>S. Bancroft, Jun.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Venus Verticordia (oil).<br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Venus Verticordia (water-colour). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival (water-colour). <i>Beresford Heaton.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Madness of Ophelia (water-colour). <i>Mrs. C. E. Lees.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - How they met Themselves (water-colour). <i>S. Pepys Cockerell.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Joan of Arc (water-colour). <i>Beresford Heaton.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1865. The Blue Bower (oil). <i>Perrins Collection.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Merciless Lady (water-colour). <i>C. F. Murray.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1866. The Beloved (oil). <i>Rae Collection.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Monna Vanna (oil). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1866-70. Sibylla Palmifera (oil). <i>Rae Collection.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1867. Christmas Carol (oil). <i>Rae Collection.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Joli Cœur (oil). <i>Miss Horniman.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Loving Cup (oil). <i>T. Ismay.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1868. Portrait of Mrs. Morris (oil). <i>Lent to Tate Gallery.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1869. Rosa Triplex (crayon). <i>Tate Gallery.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1870. Mariana (oil). <i>F. W. Buxton.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1871. Pandora (oil). <i>Charles Butler.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1872. The Bower Meadow (oil). <i>Sir J. D. Milburn.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Veronica Veronese (oil). <i>W. Imrie.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1873. La Ghirlandata (oil). <i>J. Ross.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Proserpine (oil). <i>Charles Butler.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1874. The Roman Widow (oil). <i>F. Brocklebank.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Damsel of the Sanc Grael (oil). <i>Rae Collection.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Boat of Love (grisaille). <i>Birmingham Art Gallery.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Marigolds (oil). <i>Lord Davey.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1875. La Bella Mano (oil). <i>Sir C. Quilter.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Question (pencil). <i>Birmingham Art Gallery.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1876. The Blessed Damozel (oil). <i>Perrin's Collection.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1877. Astarte Syriaca (oil). <i>Manchester Art Gallery.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Sea Spell (oil).<br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - Portraits (Mrs. Rossetti and Christina Rossetti) (crayon) <i>National Portrait Gallery.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1878. Fiammetta (oil). <i>Charles Butler.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1879. Donna della Finestra (oil). <i>W. R. Moss.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Blessed Damozel (oil). <i>Hon Mrs. O'Brien.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1880. Dante's Dream (oil). <i>W. Imrie.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - The Day-dream (oil). <i>Ionides Collection: South Kensington Museum.</i><br> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> -1881. Dante's Dream (oil). <i>Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.</i> -</p> - -<p class="noindent"> - La Pia (oil). <i>Russell Rea.</i><br> -</p> - -<p><br><br></p> - -<p class="t4"> - CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.,<br> - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.<br> -</p> - -<p><br><br><br><br></p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSSETTI ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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