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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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