Præraphaelite diaries and letters

This childish epistle from Dante Gabriel would have little or no claim to appear here, were it not for the fact (as noted in a few accompanying words by his mother) that it is “...

We went to a fancy fair in the Regent’s Park, where I bought a box of paints, Maria an album, and Christina two fishes and a hook. The fair was for the benefit of a Charity Scho...

This letter appears to have been written in 1843, which was the date of the privately-printed volume by my grandfather (_La Magion del Terrore_, etc.) containing the lyric, _A C...

In my Memoir of Dante Rossetti (published in 1895) I have spoken of a very inefficient ballad which he wrote at the age of fifteen, named _William and Marie_, and of an illustra...

Mr. Collinson was a painter, chiefly of domestic subjects, and a member of the Præraphaelite Brotherhood. The letter was addressed to him during the tour which was made by Holma...

I don’t know the date of this doggrel (which gives twenty several rhyme-words in “ack”); it was probably the Spring or Summer of 1850. The men who “would squeeze a pun in Syriac...

The “unlucky pickle” into which my brother had got was that, as the tenant of No. 72 Newman Street decamped without payment of rent, the furniture &c. of Rossetti, who was sub-t...

I cannot now say what Mr. Tupper’s “pet theory” may have been; apparently (from some law of optics) that the real tint of foliage is green, even when the eye sees it of some dif...

Many thanks for your kind present, which surprised me here half an hour ago. Nothing could possibly have been more useful to me in moving, as I had no lamp but one whose dilapid...

My beastly foot has hitherto kept me here, but I shall positively go down to Chatham Place to-morrow; if therefore you are inclined to do a charitable action, let me earnestly s...

Hunt, Millais, Stephens, and Deverell, will be here on Thursday evening, not with any reference to exhibition projects, which are likely to result, I believe, in exhibiting noth...

As I have said elsewhere, I incline to think that my brother was mistaken in supposing that his sketches had been “kicked out”; at any rate, _some_ water-colours of his were on...

This blessed afternoon the blessed white eyesore will be finished. Therefore, if you have any last directions about your pictures now in Green’s hands, you had better give them....

I find that the blessed white daub will not be finished before to-morrow evening, but then it _will_ be finished. Green has still got the frame; and herewith I write to him to s...

Just as you are gone, it occurs to me that, if in writing to McCracken you mention about the alterations in my picture, it would be better not to call them _alterations_, as tha...

“My pupil” must, no doubt, have been Miss Siddal. In the P.S. she figures as “dear G.,” which indicates the pet name “Guggum.” Her drawing from Wordsworth was an illustration of...

Holman Hunt’s “moonlight” was for the picture of _The Light of the World_. Rossetti’s “Giotto’s Dante” was the water-colour of _Giotto painting the Portrait of Dante_, sold to M...

This is a characteristic epistle. The Mr. T. here mentioned (I use a fancy initial) was not a genius, but there was no real occasion for dubbing him “an ass.” Brown did not prod...

“Lizzy” is Miss Siddal. Her portrait, water-colour, is the one reproduced in the _Family Letters_ of my brother. She painted eventually more than one water-colour from Tennyson,...

I shall be most glad to accept your invite for Sunday, to Finchley viâ Hampstead, and shall try at once for William, who I am sure will have equal pleasure if not pre-engaged--b...

I am glad that you have undertaken to read the _Arpa Evangelica_.... You should, however, always bear in mind that this book is the outcome of only three months’ work, and was w...

... I have had some news of Woolner (_i.e._, a letter to his father which was shown me). He and B[ernhard] Smith were seven months at the diggings (full accounts of which I have...

The phrase “I can’t write clearer” may deserve a moment’s attention. The fact is that my Father’s handwriting was from the first singularly precise and perfect, and such it cont...

I am sorry my letter miscarried, as it prevented your coming and meeting Hunt, whom I asked after writing to you. His day of departure was then fixed for the next day, and now i...

The picture by Miss Anna Mary Howitt at the Portland Gallery was _Gretchen at the Fountain_. My brother, in saying that Miss Howitt had been “kicking up quite a great row” with...

Miss Barbara Leigh Smith became after a while Mrs. Bodichon--a name held in high and deserved honour by persons interested in the cause which she served with lifelong zeal and l...

Brown and his first wife (his cousin, Elizabeth Bromley) married at a very early age, and lived for a while in Paris. They left Paris and settled in England in the summer of 184...

The letter from which I here extract appears to be incomplete--there is no signature to it. The oil-picture of _Parisina_ represents the jealous rage of the husband consequent u...

Brown was at this time preparing to work on his specimen of fresco, for the Westminster Hall competition; he was also engaged upon his cartoon of _The Spirit of Justice_ for the...

I shall have done my fresco to-morrow: I shall then have more than a fortnight to finish my cartoon and sketch. I can’t say how it looks till dry, but I think it is better than...

The picture mentioned is, I infer, the _Parisina_. The date of the letter is but obscurely indicated. “Our child,” named at the close of the letter, was Lucy Brown, born in 1843...