Photo, Hollyer
MARIANA
from the painting by D. G. Rossetti
N0 artist entirely of the last century has had so much
written
about him as Rossetti, so the trouble is with
the superabundance rather than the
paucity of the
material, and attempting within the limits of space,
to give not
only the main facts of his life once more,
but to pay the tribute of an
Art-lover to Genius, is
in reality very much harder than it would be to write
at
great length.
Between certain young writers in the year of Rossetti's death, there
was a most
spirited race from Birchington where the dead lay to the
nearest publishing
houses, and their books stood alone for some time.
Then came
Joseph Knight, took
Rossetti's poetical works as his main subject. To
books must be added the
articles which have flowed like a stream through
the press, but of the man as we
know him now, there was little in the
biographies published before the
appearance in 1892 of Wm. Bell Scott's
consequence was the immediate call for more to which
Wm. Rossetti
responded in 1895 with the
brother. “He
would be wrongly described,
” said the writer,
“as a
” and was extraordinarily
sentimentalist, a dreamer, and æsthete,
and the like, without making allow-
ance on the other side for attributes of a
very opposite character, for the
fact is that he was full of buoyancy,
vigour, élan; well-alive to the main
chance,
capable of enjoying the queer as well as the graver aspects of life;
and
whatever else he may have been, a quick-blooded, straight-speaking
man who
hated nothing so much as humbug,
quick to detect it. These desirable masculine traits are not very com-
monly found
with the emotional and intellectual characteristics of poets,
but Rossetti was
started in life with them all : as prone at the age of
poems.
But with humour there was solicitude always, and whether as critic
of writings by
brother and sister, or their adviser on other occasions,
he never spared trouble
at all. What the reader will notice in the majority
of the home letters is their
simplicity, and the sanity of his advice. As for
“moods,”
he had his share of them, but remembering that Rossetti,
besides being one of
ourselves, was “in the essence of his mind and
” both poet and artist in one, the wonder will
seem to be not
temperament,
that the balance of parts in a mind so strangely composed was
upset, but
that it was maintained so long. Nowhere do we seem so near to the
Rossetti who lives in Art as in Lady Burne-Jones's lately published
her husband wherein
the names of Rossetti, Morris, and Jones occur more
frequently than any others.
“I wish,
” she says,
“it were possible to
” There
explain the impression made upon me
as a young girl whose experience
had so far been quite remote from Art, by
sudden and close intercourse
with those to whom it was the breath of life.
The only approach I can
make to it, is by saying that I felt the presence of
a new religion.
is more to the same effect than
can be quoted, and in the particular case
of Rossetti there is evidence from all
quarters of the strength of the hold
which his genius gave him over others.
“In these first years,
” said
Burne-Jones, “I never wanted to think but as he thought, and
in the
” “
miserable ending years of his life, I never forgot this image of him
in his
prime, and upbraided the fate that could change
him.Rossetti
” said Mr. Prinsep in his account
was the planet round which
we revolved,
of the
Oxford days. The picture I have in my mind has been formed
as the reader will
see, by comparing the impressions of those who actually
knew the man, or by
accident of birth or marriage were drawn into the
circle to which he belonged.
One such is
says : “I have purposely laid stress on
Rossetti's possession in very full
”
measure of humour because of its infinite
value to the possessor in as
much as he is an artist at all.
The argument is, that there should be a sufficiency of it where there
is genius ;
but in Rossetti's peculiar case the combination produced a man
so far from
perfect according to ordinary standards of manners that a
very liberal allowance
for his eccentricity had to be made wherever he
pitched his tent. For
confirmation of this, and entertainment, the reader
should turn to the pages of
Madox Brown's Diary which tells us how the
time passed whilst Rossetti was with
him at Finchley. Also to some of
John Ruskin's letters. But it is possible to
have too many laughable
anecdotes where the main object is to insist on an
artist's genius, and
throughout the whole course of the story to keep that
clearly in view.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, born May 12, 1828, had for father a poet,
scholar, and
patriot whose name is honoured in Italy. As his grand-
mother on his mother's
side was English, it follows that Dante was only
three parts Italian, but a very
strong mixture indeed can be so composed,
element in his constitution. His father, as professor of Italian
in King's
College, had for a long while been settled here, and the home of the
Rossettis in London has been described as a “little Italian
Colony where
”
the native language was spoken.
“It is interesting to note,
” said Helen
Rossetti, “that whereas so many
”
Simple living, and only such luxury as was consistent with the
artists and writers have
started life heavily handicapped by their families
and domestic relations,
the early surroundings of Dante were in every
way calculated to encourage
and foster the development of his intellectual
powers.
most rigid
economy, seems to have been the rule, and not often in history
do we find
records of a family at once so gifted and so entirely united.
Though not so
remarkable, many will think, as the astonishing command
of language which was
acquired so early; he had together with that, a
noteworthy taste for drawing,
and it was “always understood in his family
”
that he would be
an artist when he grew up.
“Towards the end of 1841 at the age of thirteen years and some
” After spending some four years with Cary he
obtained
months, he left King's College School for Sass's Academy, a class for
drawing conducted by Mr. F. S. Cary, a son as it happened of the trans-
lator
of Dante.
admission, July 1846, to the Antique School of the Royal Academy,
remaining about two years, at the end of which time Rossetti according
to notably
”
weak in anatomy, and without any
scientific knowledge of perspective.
This may seem
“sad and bad ” to the lover of orderly progress in study,
but Rossetti, already a poet, could hardly have given his whole mind to
the
routine work of the school, and it seems pretty certain that neither
the
painted at that particular time if he had been kept
toiling at what passes
for Art with the many who had none of his genius for it.
He seems to
have left the Academy thinking it time he had other teachers, and to
that end approached Madox Brown whose work he admired immensely,
but when it
appeared that his task-work under that master was only to
be what he was tired
of, he became irregular in his attendance, and
presently gave it up. There never
were men more unlike than these two,
for we see in the elder the master of an
unmistakably English, as well
as a strangely unpoetical Art, and in Rossetti the
utter reverse of all
that: an artist whose gift to his lovers was the flower of
a southern clime.
It ought never to be forgotten though that Brown was a
splendid friend,
and the most steadfast he ever had. Nor does it follow that his
influence
was not very great, for the impressions of youth are the strongest,
and what
Rossetti had looked for in vain he saw in his new friend's work.
After only a few months with Madox Brown, he began to share a
studio with Holman
Hunt. So ended the painter's pupilage, and we have
the record of more thas
thirty years work in the accompanying illustrations.
In the Gretchen,Genevieve,
most probably Retzsch's whose illustrations of Faust were famous.
Towards the end of 1849, accompanied by Holman
Hunt, he visited
Paris and Belgium, and in the
after his return, Mr. Marillier notices not only the influence of
Madox
Brown in the drawing, but in the brilliant and striking colour, that of
the
Italian and Flemish painters whose works he had studied lately.
It would be as well to pause at this point to consider what manner
of youth it
was who at the age of twenty years only, was to achieve
immortality with
His activity in literature had up to that time been something astonish-
ing, says
his biographer, for, apart from his other poems,
translations from the Italian poets,
actually written between 1845 and 1859. Though we have had from
the
author of
Euphorion
her remarkable study of Mediæval Love
told what to
deduct on the score of conceit from the sonnets in imitation of
the Italian
which were as the sands of the sea without number in the
“spacious days
” which gave birth to
them, the knowledge of Italy's genius,
which would help to the understanding of
the poet we had in Rossetti, is
not by any means common, and failing that it may
seem a pity that so
much should be written about him. Suffice it for the moment
to say that
only by devoting his youth to the poets of his own country did he
discover
in English the music we have in his verse, and all of a sudden appeared
as
the master of what must have seemed a new instrument; striking no un-
certain
note on it either, nor mistaking his power of bringing his Heaven
so near as it
seems to the reader of
are told what he saw in the Virgin Mary
seemed young to Rossetti, with only one mystery in it.
Though actually it is impossible to think of this painter apart from the * Captain Ruxton of New York to W. M. Rossetti.
poet,
the business of the present moment is with his pictures chiefly, and
what
remains of my space has to be devoted to the illustrations. After
the point we
have reached, the appearance of Ruskin as the champion
of the Pre-Raphaelites is
the most important event to be noticed.
setti's
undoubtedly was the inspiring force of this movement, but actually
there is
not a painting of his so characteristic of it*
were; and Madox Brown's, and Holman Hunt's. In the
the devotion
to Nature, but these are virtues to be sought after, rather
than idiosyncracies
to be avoided, and the painter of
had really as much in common with our impressionists as, with the men
of
the set, he was in. No painting of the same subject has ever made
a profounder
impression; and no writer, excepting the painter himself,
has ever done justice
to it. So it remains the “world's choice
”
among
paintings treating of that subject; yet Rossetti's by all accounts was
rather the poet's religion than that of any particular church, and
though
amount he actually did was not great.
The
whereas theBlessed white daub,
” as he called it,
remained unsold for the next three years, during which he had hoped
to be
earning. So painting in oil was given up for some time, and subjects
for
somewhat more popular pictures had to be sought far and wide.
Rossetti's had to
be poetical subjects though, since he cared for so little
else, and Dante,
Boccaccio, Malory, Tennyson, Browning and others have
had something to thank him
for. Nor was Shakespeare entirely neglected,
and that his mind at that time was
simply packed full of ideas for pictures
there remains very ample proof.
“The statement could be easily verified,
”
says that
”
many, if not most, of Rossetti's later pictures were
planned during these
early strenuous years of his life. No one will ever
know what piles of
unused studies and drawings were destroyed in the
periodical excavations
of his studio, or during his frequent removals; and a
visitor of about this
time, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, has recorded his
amazement at the number
which littered the floor, and every available corner.
Thus with ideas enough to last him his life-time, we see him started
as a
professional painter, and it will be convenient to divide the years
of his
active life into decades. Whilst the quality of the original must
necessarily be
lost in the reproduction, the design is at any rate there by
means of which we
are brought almost as close to the artist on his intel-
lectual side as we should
have been by the original, and with illustrations
so arranged as to take us
through the stages of his career are not altogether
without guides.
It would be difficult to over-estimate during the first of these periods,
the
importance of Ruskin's enthusiastic admiration of the young painter,
for without
his solicitous friendship, and very substantial help during
the years of the
engagement to Miss Siddall, there might have been hard
times for them both. Next
after this in importance, came the meeting
at Oxford over
confederates. Though it was little he really did, his eloquence fired the
others, and the fact seems to be that what they most wanted in Art, they
actually had in this man with whom it was a living thing. What wonder
that he
had Morris's worship, or that of Morris's friend, Burne-Jones?
Fortunately
no one who reads it can doubt the strength of the
master's influence,
or fail to be deeply moved.
Since so much of his genius found its fullest expression in colour, there
must
necessarily be disappointments where it is lacking, and unqualified
admiration
of all here shown is not required of the reader. The object
has been to make the
illustrations instructive, and of that they can hardly
fail. Allowance must also
be made for the fact that no idea of the scale
of a work can be conveyed by the
reproduction, nor can any one tellBeata Beatrix as 1883. This is probably a misprint for 1863, although the actual date of the painting is 1864.
worked. I think it as
well to say this at once, because Rossetti during
this period was working
chiefly in water-colour on drawings of no great
scale.
Though associated with the pre-Raphaelites, he produced nothing
so excessively
laboured as the most characteristic work of the Brethren.
In the exceptional
case of the picture called
to be “life-like,” the task
proved altogether too hard, and though
commenced in 1853, it was still in hand
when he died. What we have to
look for then in the work of these few years is
not the pre-Raphaelitism
which he had preached, but rather the indications of
genius which,
though often obscured by the subject-matter, are never entirely lost.
a painter
so young perhaps too much is attempted. Two sweetly pretty
figures in a not very
attractive group are those of the little dancers ; note the
face and pose of the
boy, recalling the Primitives in their naiveté, though
otherwise
modern entirely. The light that comes from his favourite window
is enough to
give an idea of what the Borgia's attractions were, and his fond-
ness of gorgeous
attire in women may account for his choice of this
subject.
elimination of the
” was carried as far as any two lovers could wish,
and the
immaterial
painter was fortunate in having a subject belonging to no particular
time
or place.
is remarkable in this little
drawing may be attributed partly to the Pan-
Anglican Medævalism of a
particular period, and like most of the work
that bears witness to the
seriousness of that obsession, appears to be
anything but true to the
life—either that which was lived of old, or ours
of the present day.
Rossetti was led out of his course sometimes, but took
one of the
“seven lamps
” with him, and carried it
into dark places.
Since it illustrates Malory also,
of much later date (1867) may
as well be compared with the other. The
painting here reproduced is a copy in
water-colour of a cartoon for stained
glass which was done for Morris's Firm, 1862.
Excepting the artist's daring there is nothing very remarkable in the
first of
these three paintings, for again he attempts too much. In
Dante before,
and it shows in other respects an advance on the work of
the previous years. He
had learned amongst other things to concentrate
the spectator's attention on the
main object, and this in his latter work
is what he most constantly aimed at. So
the objective in this painting
is “Love,” and in
towards the
realisation by means of his Art of these and other ideals
follow.
The years we are in were ones of amazing fertility. Drawings of very
great beauty
were Dante's
for the Frontispiece
Rossetti made his first appearance as a book
illustrator. The
drawing
year, 1856. In 1857 came what another writer
describes as a “charming
” purchased by Morris, of which the
little series of
water-colours,
Other important undertakings of the same period (1856-1860) were
the
illustrations to
Cathedral, wherein
the “Tennyson”
that his genius was as much at home on the page of
a poet's book as elsewhere in
the field of Art, while in the
for the first time the face of
the lady who inspired so much of his later
work. So
Oxford where they had met “did not end with
the Union paintings.
”
As to the suggestion that he
painted but one type of face thereafter, it
must be taken for what it is worth.
Mr. William Rossetti has given us
a nearly complete list of his brother's
models, and we shall make their
acquaintance here.
Two panels in oils painted in Red Lion Square for Morris's house
at
Upton. Something that seems to have escaped notice is the likeness
of
to the previous year. (Both from the same model clearly,
and of both
faces the three-quarter view.) Though completed during this year,
it
is known that he had had the latter in hand since 1853, and
after allowing for
the painter's own strength, there remains a good
deal of a remarkable work to be
attributed to the influence of Madox
Brown, and to what he had noticed most in
the practice of that painter's
masters.
A letter he wrote to Wm. Bell Scott towards the close of that period
may or may
not refer to
but since a very marked change will be
noticed in his painting from
that time forward, is of quite sufficient
importance to be quoted at
length :
“
”November 13, 1859.
I have painted a figure in oils, in
doing which I have made an effort
to avoid what I know to be a besetting sin
of mine, and indeed rather
common to painting—that of stippling
on the flesh. I have succeeded
in quite keeping the niggling process at a
distance this time, and am very
desirous when I can find leisure and
opportunity, of painting various
figures of this kind chiefly as studies of
rapid flesh painting. I am sure
expression, and colour have
to be thought of all at once . . . one can
never do justice to what faculty
of mere painting may be in one. Even
among the old good painters, their
portraits and simpler pictures are
nearly always their masterpieces for
colour and execution, and I fancy
if one kept this in view one would have
a better chance of learning to paint at last.
I have purposely underscored the words which bear witness, to Ros-
setti's
knowledge of his own failings, for it ought to be generally known
that he was at
all times aware of them. As a youth he had that prodigy
Millais at his right
hand to make him despair of being his equal; but
Millais at the same time had
the painter of
him.
In the above-quoted letter to Scott we see very clearly on what the
mind of the
painter was bent, but it does not appear that he had any idea
at that time of
practising one kind of painting only. It will also be noticed
that he proposed
to make “studies chiefly
,” but neither the
leisure nor
the opportunity came with the desire to have them; consequently, not
all at once do we notice this change, and though paintings of the kind
he had
promised became more frequent, he was still producing beautiful
work along the
same lines as before, and some of the best must be
noticed.
To commence with the year 1861, Rossetti is credited by
biographer
under the name of Morris and Co.
If it be true that he originated this
as well as the earlier movement of the
pre-Raphaelites, the amount of
work the world owes to Rossetti's inspiring force
must be very much
greater than that which he completed himself, and in the
reckoning
which is to come it will have to be duly considered. For the evidence
of his association with that adventure the catalogues showing what he
accomplished during 1861 and the following year should be consulted.
Cabinet executed by Morris and
Co. for Mr. Seddon. In this admired
little painting there is amusement for the
spectator in the attitude of the
lady performer whilst being kissed by her lord
and master.
A notable event was the appearance (1861) of Rossetti's “
artist always had stores of previous
studies at hand, and the idea in this
case was taken, from the panel called
painted in Red Lion Square.
As if in fulfilment of his promise to make studies in oils from single
figures
his business so far as he could, came
ideals of a
later day.
*The Ballad of Burd Helen. or Childe Waters.
The following year (1862), is represented by a reproduction of
Rossetti's
far to seek. The act
of kissing the Sword of Deliverance is being per-
formed by a woman who with our
modern apprehension of Death, has
yet the determination to face it which has won
battles time out of mind.
All he had ever preached of sincerity was put into
practice here, and its
having been painted in the year of his wife's death may
account for the
depth of the feeling in it.
We shall presently come upon paintings appealing more directly
to the lovers of
“Art for Art's sake ” than to the generality, but before
reaching that point the
other works of the second period will have to be noticed
(1861-1866).
Of the first it would be hard to say much, and Rossetti's own words
are
the best : “while the bird, a messenger of Death, drops
the poppy between
”
her hands, she through her shut lids is conscious of a new
world; gazing
continually on His countenance qui est per omnium sæcula benedictus
“What Rossetti thought and felt about this picture himself we may
gather from the fact that, for some years he refused to send out any replica
of
it even when replicas had become a regular and lucrative branch of
business to
the detriment of his better Art.”
There is nothing so good in times of distress as hard work, and Rossetti
was not
at all idle that year. To see what else he accomplished we have
to descend from
the spiritual plane to the one below that upon which more
ordinary subjects
abound, but chiefly we have to remember that we had
in that year his
nor like anything yet
to come. In ordinary life a man, even such as
Rossetti was, may repeat himself
many times, but not when he has already
surpassed himself, as we say. So though
there were other
the like of
and for all in
bride.
that the like of
her is not in nature, but is not the type preserved in what
is commonly called
“the dangerous woman,” and preserved for all time
in this
subtly wonderful painting? Rossetti was wont to describe it as
a
“Toilet Piece,” and his having called her Lady Lilith rather than Lilith
only makes it
even pretty clear that he had in his mind's eye some modern
descendant of hers.
Let that be compared with the
the same year. If ever any one was, she is pure, designed simply to
look Life in the face and be glad; counting Love as but one of God's
gifts when
it comes. As usual with Rossetti's works there are different
versions of it to
choose from, but none so much to my liking as the one I
have in my mind.
The paintings which followed from 1863 onwards, were mostly of beauty
in the
reality as it was shown him by sitters and models.
Rossetti about this time ceased
” one of the earliest of
which was his
subjects,
of such
pictures as these, and one as lovely as any,
was prepared for
production of Rossetti's life
and art. Nor should it be otherwise consider-
ing he was then in the prime of
life. “Surrounded by her maidens she
”
advances to meet the
bridegroom, and at his approach she unveils her
face, which for radiant
beauty and purity is almost without parallel
in the annals of pictorial art.
Rich and splendid in colour beyond all
description is the bride's gorgeous
robe which is a wonderful Rossettian
green, embroidered with red and gold.
, as the Song says.The Virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company
In
recognised, and another, I think, in the
works of his prime was absolute master of his
resources such as they
were. His feeling for pure brush drawing found expression
amongst these
fair women in their contours, and particularly where it is
loveliest, in
the line of the lids, and the lips and the hands.
extant in his crayon drawings, but none of more beauty than this, and
Rossetti has given a finish to it to which I wish to draw attention
particu-
larly. In the first place the linking of the three figures has been
effected
with marvellous art ; and secondly, do we not see in the loveliness of
their attire, and its ornamentation by strings of pearls, the work of an
artist
who could not have been kept from adding beauty to beauty while
Nature was
calling to him ? Not by preaching as others had, but by paint-
ing as no one had,
he anticipated nearly every manifestation of that most
welcome reunion of Art
and Craft which has been the happy result of
so much united action in that direction.
The most photographic picture we have of his home during this second
period, his
manner of living, his collections, and his menagerie, and of the
entertainment
he gave his friends is in a booklet of “
Mr. Treffry Dunn who succeeded a
previous assistant, Mr. Knewstub :
“It will be apparent to the
readers of this narrative
.” says
Rossettithat in
the years which it covers, Mr. Dunn saw as much of
” Mr. Dunn's account is in the
Dante Rossetti as any
other person did—he witnessed his comings-in, and
goings-out ;
was highly familiar with his methods of work as a painter, and
did a good
deal towards keeping things straight in an establishment where
the master's
rather thriftless and negligent habits in household affairs
might easily
have made them crooked.
main of the years which saw Rossetti in the zenith of his career.
In 1867 came the first intimation he had that his constitution would
not stand
the strain that was put upon it by his persistent neglect of the
means by which
the most of us contrive to keep what passes for health
in London.
The lines are by Mrs. Browning, and seem as if they had been written
to meet
every such case as Rossetti's. Probably insomnia was the first
cause of his
trouble, though at the same time there was the utmost anxiety
about his eyesight
; then came the first really serious illness, and though
there were paintings of
no less importance to come than that of
beautiful of all,
evidence not to be wondered at
of exhaustion of motive and strength
which some will detect in the painting,
others in the comparative weakness
of the conception, and others perhaps in both.
seen these pictures, and his opinion of
Rossetti's painting from 1870
onwards was that it could not be compared with
advantage with the work
of the previous years ; nor did he make the exceptions
in favour of certain
pictures which others are still inclined to, but his
contention was sound
in the main. Omitting for want of space his review of the
latest years,
I think I cannot do better than quote what he said in praise :
“Beginning, after a few earlier essays like the
”
the
of this class and period
include certainly all that is most technically
accomplished, if not what is
most strikingly interesting and suggestive in
Rossetti's work as a painter.
He, by degrees, acquired breadth and ease
and a real mastery in the design
of these single female figures and heads.
Certain qualities of oil painting
he mastered with entire success. Depth
of tone and chiaroscuro he as yet did
not seek, but he attacked and
vanquished the most daring problems of colour
in equal and diffused light.
For the combination of keen and flashing
intensity with mystery and
delightfulness of quality, his paintings of
tissues and jewels and flowers at
this period stands, it is no extravagance
to say, alone in Art. Witness the
cornflowers and passion-flowers, the
hawthorn tiles and green robes, and
amethyst and ruby and turquoise
enamelled jewellery of the
—or the roses and honey-suckle and butterflies of
the
(
The first meeting with Mrs. Morris, then Miss Burden, was in 1857,
and one of the
earliest drawings of her is the
the same date as the design for the Oxford Union called
is not only the most beautiful portrait of her,
but as beautiful a represen-
tation of the Virgin Mother as any we have in Art.
From intimacy and
subsequent residence with Morris resulted many more drawings
and
paintings. The one here reproduced of the year 1858 was, asthe precursor of the long
series of canvases by which he has
,” and is at present in the Tate Gallery
become best known to the
public
with
1870, she reappears, but what should be particularly noticed in the
re-
production is the sweet face of the boy page with his song
:
“Take, oh ! take those lips away . . .
.”
The possessors of
tration he gives of
of
1871. The opportunity of instituting the comparison should be seized
upon,
since it is offered, but the later painting remains beyond doubt the
greater,
not only in scale, and whatever its failings may be, is silencing
in its effect
on the witnesses of the last act in this tragedy.
be necessary to call attention to the splendidly
decorative qualities of
most of the paintings of these last years, but while
others have little else
in them, we have all that in this painting, and a great
deal more besides.
That he gave us nothing more purely beautiful than the Veronica is an
opinion which gains in strength, for there is
poetry in the idea of flooding
the canvas with song : a lady while listening to
the sweet notes of a bird
tries to strike them on the violin. Since we see in
this picture the model
for the
of the Veronica was not bestowed on the damsel as well. The painting
was
nobly planned however, and it would be hard to find fault with Ros-
setti's
representation of the Damosel as a humanly beautiful creature
with the yearning
for earth in her heart that is so finely expressed in the
poem. When the last
word has been said about the painting and all it
means, will not somebody
venture to say how well it would look in
stone?
and paintings from
Nature as we have in the sweet face of the child who
is holding the bracelet up,
and in the beautiful face of the Magdalene
(1876) is very refreshing indeed.
Either because others seem to deserve
it better than others, or because the
allowance of space has been exceeded
already, some of these illustrations must
pass without notice at present.
Dr. Richard Garnett has said of Rossetti truly:
“that many departments
,” and that being so, a correspond-
of human activity had no interest
for him
ing limitation
of intellectual range in his art is to be expected of course.
A poet among
painters, mostly of the commonplace, he should never have
lowered himself to
their level only to imitate what they did better, but
fortunately he did that
seldom, and because the ‘Subject’ was every-
thing then. In
none of his character paintings is there a gleam of the
genuine humour which he
actually had in great measure; not that which
has given the painter of Uncle
Toby and Widow Wadman his place among
place on the ground which painters like Orchardson
hold. Rossetti's
admiration of Hogarth and Morland shows how thorough was his
appreciation of the technique of those masters, and that he well understood
the
Englishman's feeling for them. He it was who said to Watts-Dunton
that
“Millais's executive power was paralysing to look
upon
,” but whose
“hand and soul” moved
in a sphere which none of those masters entered,
and only because it has been
overpraised do I care to notice the work which
he did on the lower plane.
Though he could not have known that nothing was wanted so much,
nor that it would
shortly become his main business, he had decided, as we
have seen, to fill his
gallery with paintings of women chiefly, and putting
the question of health
aside, it seems to be pretty certain that his talent
would have run to seed
among the ideals of his latter days. It does
happen to be the fact that his life
was shortened by his constant recourse
to chloral, but he was already committed
in Art to the pursuit of a narrow
course, and it does not seem that his mind was
very gravely affected
by it, for he could write in this wise to his old friend
Madox Brown
about the habit he had acquired: “the fact is that
a man in my
”
case must either do as I do or cease from necessary occupation
which
cannot be pursued in the day when the night is robbed of its
rest.
Anxiety about his eyesight had reminded him that after
all he was a poet,
and may be held to account for his having consented, though
with the
utmost reluctance, to the exhumation (in 1869) of the manuscript which
he had laid by his wife when she died.
When he returned to the composition of verse it was with unabated
powers, and
tlere is truth in what the friend of his last years has said :
“In style the most direct and masculine of his poetic work
is his very
” and no less convincing than
that is the evidence of his
latest, as will be found by referring to the volume of
‘
latest letters to the members of his own family to
whom he seemed ever
the same.
Whatever the cause of it was, the leave-taking at Kelmscott must have
greatly
increased his loneliness, and no less unfortunate probably was
the breaking up
of the Firm to which he had belonged from the first,
for nothing could have been
better for him at that time than to seek rest
in design.
It would be hard to imagine a life more happily started, or to find
any one
moving in such a circle as his, yet Rossetti, alternately worshipped
and
worshipping, was the sort of man who must have congenial spirits
about him or
none, feeling it better to be alone than to converse with
the common sort ; and
during his busiest years, those which followed
the death of his wife, must have
found company almost as much to
his liking in the various things he collected as
in most of the people
about him.
In the letter which has been quoted he said, “he would have a
better
.”
chance of learning to paint at last if he kept but one object in
view
Thus did this more exclusive devotion to Art help to
intensify that
personal loneliness the feeling of which was deepened (can any
one
doubt it) immensely by the irreparable loss of the one in whom he saw
Beatrice :—on Earth as Dante had seen her, and in Heaven again and
again.
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ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE 12 STAMPS