Although not an important work, the sonnet is an interesting piece for the ironical
way it treats the Pre-Raphaelite ideology of significant detail. The PRB and Ruskinian program
of pictorial exactitude implied, as this sonnet's negative space indicates, a conviction in
the spiritual significance of aesthetic precision.
Textual History: Composition
Composed late in October 1849 toward the end of DGR's and Hunt's trip to Paris and Belgium.
Printing History
The sonnet was not published until 1900 (in volume 7 of WMR's
Siddal Edition
). It was then collected in 1911 (page 270).
This collection contains 3 texts and images, including:
Manuscript text from DGR's letter to James Collinson
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
Although not an important work, the sonnet is an interesting piece for the ironical way it treats the Pre-Raphaelite ideology of significant detail. The PRB and Ruskinian program of pictorial exactitude implied, as this sonnet's negative space indicates, a conviction in the spiritual significance of aesthetic precision.
Textual History: Composition
Composed late in October 1849 toward the end of DGR's and Hunt's trip to Paris and Belgium.
Printing History
The sonnet was not published until 1900 (in volume 7 of WMR's Siddal Edition ). It was then collected in 1911 (page 270).