Part 2

The artistic and romantic force which had produced the Pre-Raphaelite movement had another important work to do five or six years later, when a fusion of two movements took place: the early Pre-Raphaelites represented by Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, joined the later movement inaugurated by Morris and Burne-Jones. The second of these groups originated at Exeter College, Oxford. It took shape like the first one in a revolt against the Art formulæ of the age. The Oxford group, like the P.R.B., had a magazine to express their views.

At Christmas 1855 Burne-Jones came up to London and was introduced to Rossetti, whom he and Morris admired greatly. Rossetti contributed "The Burden of Nineveh," and a little altered version of "The Blessed Damozel" to the "Oxford and Cambridge Magazine," the organ of William Morris.

One year later Burne-Jones and Morris settled in London in rooms at 17 Red Lion Square. Both young men were soon completely under Rossetti's influence, and their studio became a sort of centre for all members of his circle. There, in order to furnish and decorate these rooms, the first essays in designing furniture were made. Rossetti painted a pair of panels for a cabinet. He made use of the subject of his early pen-and-ink drawing, "The Salutation of Beatrice," representing, in two divisions, Dante meeting Beatrice in Florence and again in Paradise, with a figure of Love standing between them in the midst of symbols. Besides those panels Rossetti painted on the backs of two arm-chairs, "Gwendolen in the Witch-tower" and the "Arming of a Knight," both subjects from poems by William Morris.

To 1857 belongs the charming series of water-colours acquired by William Morris: "The Damsel of the St. Grael," "The Death of Breuse sans pitié," "The Chapel before the Lists," "The Tune of Seven Towers," and "The Blue Closet." The two last were special favourites with Morris who used their romantic titles for two of his poems. This year also, he painted the "Wedding of St. George," "The Gate of Memory," "The Garden Bower," and a "Christmas Carol."

During the vacation of 1857 Rossetti went to Oxford with Morris to visit the architect, Benjamin Woodward, who was constructing a debating-hall for the Union Society. Rossetti saw an opportunity for mural decoration, and arrangements were made with the building committee in charge that seven artists including Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and Morris, should undertake the decoration gratuitously, the Union only defraying their expenses at Oxford and providing all necessary material. Rossetti took for subjects, "Launcelot asleep before the Chapel of the Sanc Grael" and "Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival, receiving the Sanc Grael." Before the pictures were finished they began to fade, the walls having been badly prepared and Rossetti's designs were never completed.

While at Oxford, in the summer of 1857, at the theatre, Rossetti was very much impressed one night by the striking beauty of Miss Burden, the daughter of an Oxford resident. He obtained an introduction in order to ask for sittings. A pen-and-ink head called "Queen Guinevere," probably meant to replace the earlier studies done for "Launcelot at the Shrine," was the first result of the new acquaintance. Several years later, after the death of his wife, Miss Burden, then Mrs. William Morris, again sat to Rossetti for several of his important pictures.

IV

On the 23rd of May 1860, the long delayed marriage of Rossetti to Miss Siddal took place in St. Clement's Church, Hastings, and the married couple went to Paris for their honeymoon. While staying there Rossetti did two pen-and-ink drawings one of which called "How they meet themselves," was done to replace the one made in 1851 and lost; the other representing a scene from the "Life of Johnson" by Boswell, quite an unusual subject for the artist. To the same year belongs the picture representing Lucrezia Borgia washing her hands after preparing poison for her husband the Duke Alphonso of Bisceglia.

In 1861 Rossetti's translation from the Italian poets was at last published with the "Vita Nuova" in a volume entitled "The Italian Poets from Cuillo d'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100, 1200, 1300)." The painter poet was enabled to publish this book through Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. by the generous assistance of Ruskin who advanced £100 to the publisher, but the sale of the first edition was only just sufficient to pay that sum back, leaving a balance of about £10 to the author. He proposed to etch for the frontispiece a charming design of which various pen-and-ink versions exist, but being displeased with the plate he destroyed it. In the same year he painted a small portrait of his wife called "Regina Cordium." The head with ruddy hair hanging loose on the shoulders against a gold background, fills nearly all the canvas and a hand is seen on the left side of the picture holding a pansy. More than one replica of that portrait exists, and several heads from different sitters are called "Regina Cordium." Another important production of the year is "Cassandra." The subject is a scene on the walls of Troy before Hector's last battle. He has been warned in vain by the prophetess, who is seen leaning against a pillar, tearing her clothes in despair. Hector is rushing down the steps, and the whole composition is full of soldiers, every space being filled with some incident related to the central subject, giving that aspect of concentrated composition so special to Rossetti.

The two years following his marriage (1860-1862) were amongst the most prolific of Rossetti's life both in ideas and invention. Besides "Cassandra" he planned the composition for a large picture which was commissioned but never finished, representing Perseus with the Medusa's head; and he made the first pencil studies for his famous "Beata Beatrix."

With 1862 is associated the water-colour, "Bethlehem Gate." It is also about this time (1861-1862) that the now famous firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. was established with the co-operation of William Morris, Faulkner, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Webb, and others as active members.

The idea of the commercial attempt on the artistic lines to reform the art of decoration and furniture-making was, says Mr. Mackail, largely due to Madox Brown, but perhaps more to Rossetti, who, in spite of his artistic qualities, was a very good business man and had the scent of a trained financier for anything likely to pay. The little band of original artists and designers took in hand tapestry, furniture, wall papers, stained-glass, and later on, carpet weaving and dyeing. The terms under which they worked were very simple. Each member was to be paid for the work commissioned by the firm, and the profits were to be divided in a proper ratio at the end.

The new firm had plenty to do owing to the demand for ritual decorations caused by the Anglo-Catholic movement. Amongst the first commissions were those for adorning two new churches then being built--St. Martin-on-the-Hill, Scarborough, and St. Michael at Brighton. For the first one Rossetti made a design for two pulpit panels and several windows.

In dealing with stained-glass Rossetti who was specially gifted as a decorator, understood his medium, and in making his design took into account all the limitations of the material. He did not seek to paint a picture on glass, but maintained that idea of a mosaic of coloured-glass that is seen to so much advantage in the early _vitraux_.

Amongst works designed by him for the firm Morris & Co. the following may be mentioned: "Adam and Eve," two designs for stained-glass, and "St. George and the Dragon," six designs for stained-glass. One of them representing the princess drawing the fatal lot he painted as a water-colour. "King Rene's Honeymoon," a design for one of four panels representing the Arts, was done for a gothic cabinet that Mr. J. P. Seddon ordered from Morris & Co. Rossetti's design for "Music" shows the king bent over a chamber-organ kissing his bride while she is playing. He designed also one of the minor panels "Gardening." There is a water-colour of the same subject under the title of "Spring." "Amor, Amans, Amata," were three small figures in ovals, done for the back of a sofa, which Rossetti had made for himself. He kept it for many years in his house at Chelsea. "Sir Tristran and la Belle Iseult drinking the Love potion" was a fine design intended to be one of a series of stained-glass windows. "King Rene's Honeymoon" was done for a series of stained-glass windows. "The Annunciation" is a design for a window, quite different from the early version of the same subject. "Threshing" is a design for a glazed tile. "The Sermon on the Mount" was done for a memorial window in Christ Church, Albany Street, erected in 1869 to the memory of his aunt, Miss Polidori.

In either 1861 or 1862 Rossetti designed two illustrations for his sister Christina's book of poems "Goblin Market." They were engraved on wood and appear in Messrs. Macmillan's edition.

In May 1861 Mrs. Rossetti gave birth to a still-born child. Her recovery was slow, and this trouble did not improve her consumptive tendencies. She suffered, too, from a very severe form of neuralgia, for which laudanum was prescribed.

On the night of the 11th of February 1862 she took an overdose and Rossetti, returning home from lecturing at the Working Men's College, found her dying. In a terrible state of anxiety, after seeking one doctor after another, he called in Madox Brown for help, but all in vain. The following morning his wife died, after only two years of married life. The grief of Rossetti was overwhelming and the touching scene in which he buried the manuscript of his poems with his beloved wife has been told many a time.

V

After this tragic event Rossetti could no longer live in the rooms he had occupied at Chatham Place. He looked for some others, living meanwhile for a few months in a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Then he took a lease of the house at No. 16 Cheyne Walk, sharing it at first with Swinburne and Meredith. Mr. Meredith did not stay long and after awhile Mr. Swinburne also gave up his tenancy, leaving Rossetti sole occupant of the premises.

One of the last works he did before his misfortune, and the last picture for which his wife sat to him, was the water-colour of "St. George and the Princess Sabra." For sometime after the blow of his wife's death he was idle. The first things he did after his recovery was a crayon portrait of his mother (1862) followed by "The Girl at a Lattice," "Joan of Arc," and a replica of his early "Paolo and Francesca."

The celebrated picture of "Beata Beatrix," now in the Tate Gallery is dated 1863, but was finished later, being only partly painted in that year. In Rossetti's own words the following is a description of the picture: "The picture illustrates the _Vita Nuova_, embodying symbolically the death of Beatrice as treated in that work. The picture is not intended at all to represent death, but to render it under the semblance of a trance in which Beatrice, seated at a balcony overlooking the city, is suddenly rapt from earth to heaven...."

The whole strikes a sombre note apart from its symbolic representation through its delicious purple harmony. The city in the sunset light in the distance, supposed to be Florence, is very like London in atmospheric effect. Beatrice is seen sitting at the balcony against the sunset background, with the light playing round her golden auburn hair, in fashion suggesting an aureole. She is dressed in green with dull purple sleeves. A bright red bird holding in its beak a dim purple poppy, emblem of death, is flying towards her. In the misty distance the figures of Dante and Love are watching her. Rossetti painted in 1872 a replica of that picture, adding to the main subject the meeting of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise, with maidens bearing instruments of music. He was rather reluctant to send out that replica, but the unwillingness was overcome. He painted several others, none of them being equal in quality to the original.

In 1863 Rossetti painted an oil picture called "Helen of Troy," and the last of the St. George subjects, representing St. George killing the dragon, which is a water-colour version of the stained-glass series. Then come three small subjects, "Belcolore," a girl in a circular frame biting a rosebud. Of this there is a red chalk study and a water-colour version, "Brimfull," a water-colour showing a lady stooping to sip from a full glass, and a picture called "A Lady in Yellow."

Rossetti now gave up painting those quaint little romantic subjects so intense in literary feeling and dramatic expression, and devoted himself to large single figures upon a background of rich accessories.

When a painter makes a single figure the central interest of his picture, he must, to a certain extent, avail himself of psychological facts in the model before him, for if he recognises no limits to the foreign sentiment and character he may impose, he will, little by little, fall to the creation of a type which is not far short of a monstrosity. Although the first of his pictures in this new style are among his finest works we see this inevitable degeneration in Rossetti's latest paintings.

The first pictures of this kind and some of the best are, "Fazio's Mistress," and "Lady Lilith." The former is dated 1863, but was altered and repainted ten years later, and Rossetti changed its title to "Aurelia." In 1864 he painted the latter which is a modern conception of that first wife of Adam mentioned in the old Talmudic Legend. The Lady Lilith is seated against a background covered with roses. Dressed in white, she holds a mirror in her hand, and combs her long fair hair. Although dated 1864 it was really not finished until 1867. The face as it is now was repainted in 1873 from a different model, and is said to be quite inferior to the former one. Rossetti at that time seemed to be a victim of a mania for repainting his earlier work.

The next great picture, begun in 1864, is "Venus Verticordia," the oil version of which was not finished before 1868. It represents the nude bust of a massively built woman surrounded by roses and honeysuckle. She holds an arrow in her right hand and in the left an apple on which a yellow butterfly has alighted. The face is conventionally pretty and lacks character.

"Morning Music," an elaborate little water-colour; "Monna Pomona," a girl holding an apple with roses on her lap and in a basket at her side; "How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival received the Holy Grael" (done in his earlier manner); "Roman de la Rose," a water-colour version of the earlier panel, and "The Madness of Ophelia," represent the remaining production of 1864.

There is little to mention in 1865. The most important productions of that year were "The Blue Bower," and "The Merciless Lady." In the "Merciless Lady," a water-colour in the style of his earlier romantic manner, a man sits on a bank of turf between two maidens, with a sunlit meadow behind. He seems attracted by the one on his left who is fair and plays a lute, the other, his lady love, holds his hand and with a sad expression tries to win him back to her. "A Fight for a Woman," the composition of which is of a very early date, and the oil-painting, "Bella e Buona," but renamed "Il Ramoscello," were also painted in 1865.

After these came "The Beloved," finished in 1866, but worked again in 1873, this time without being spoiled. In writing to the owner of this picture Rossetti said: "I mean it to be like jewels," and he carried out his intention. In the middle of the picture is the fair-haired bride radiant in rich stuffs, her gown is green, with large sleeves embroidered in gold and red. She is surrounded by four dark-haired maidens, on the foreground a little negro, adorned with a head-band and a necklace showing the beautiful invention of Rossetti's taste in decorative art, is holding a golden vase of roses.

Next comes the "Monna Vanna," which represents a lady dressed in a magnificent embroidered robe with large sleeves, holding a fan of black and yellow plumes. Her luxuriant hair is falling from each side of her face on to her shoulders, a bunch of roses is seen in a vase on the left top corner of the picture.

"The Sibylla Palmifera," and "Monna Vanna," were not completed before 1870. The latter represents a Sibyl sitting underneath a stone canopy, which is carved on one side with a cupid's head wreathed with roses, and on the other with a skull crowned with red poppies. The Sibyl is clad in crimson, her brown hair is parted and falling each side of her face, a green coif spreads from her head over her shoulder and she holds a palm-leaf in her hand. There is a replica of the head of "Sibylla Palmifera." In the same year (1866) he painted in oils a portrait of his mother, and made a large crayon drawing of his sister Christina. He also made two illustrations for her volume of poems, "The Prince's Progress."

In 1867 Rossetti painted in oils "The Christmas Carol," of which a crayon study exists; "Monna Rosa," and the "Loving Cup." For the water-colour, "The Return of Tibullus to Delia," there are numerous sketches made from Miss Siddal sitting on a couch biting a tress of her hair, which show that the design must have been of a much earlier date. The water-colours, "Aurora," "Tessa la Bionda;" the crayons, "Magdalene," "Peace," "Contemplation," and the crayon replica, "Venus Verticordia," bear the same date.

Unfortunately about this time Rossetti began to have serious trouble with his eyesight, and had probably to reduce his hours of work. All the same in 1868 he painted a portrait of Mrs. Morris, who has kindly lent it to the Tate Gallery, where it can now be seen. Several chalk crayon studies have been done for this portrait. Then he began the picture of "The Daydream," representing Mrs. Morris sitting on the lower branches of a sycamore tree, a replica in water-colour of "Bocca Baciate," called "Bionda del Balcone"; "The Rose," a water-colour; a crayon drawing, "Aurea Catena," some studies for "La Pia," which was begun about this time, and a water-colour replica of "Venus Verticordia."

Rossetti had now reached his fortieth year and for about a twelvemonth had been suffering from insomnia. This was the cause of the break-up of his health, for to gain relief he acquired the habit of taking chloral, a drug of which the properties were then little known.

VI

During a visit to Penkill the thought of publishing his early poems occurred to him. Towards the end of 1869 he was busy with their preparation. Some of them were in circulation in manuscript in a more or less finished condition and some others were buried with his wife. As a relief from the strain of painting he began to write again. "The Ballad of Troy Town," part of "Eden Bower," and the "Stream's Secret," were among the new poems. He thought at first to collect as many of the earlier works as he could remember, together with those of which friends had manuscript copies, and to have them set up in type as the foundation of a possible volume. But he was persuaded with difficulty to apply for permission to open the grave of his wife in order to recover the buried manuscript. In 1870 the book, under the title, "Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti," was published by Mr. F. S. Ellis, then in King Street, Covent Garden. Round Rossetti and his buried poems a sort of legend had been growing up which, aided by his fame as a painter, guarded his work against the indifference with which a volume of verses by an unknown poet is bound to be received. The book proved a great success and within a week or two Rossetti found himself in possession of £300.

This success was not achieved without raising some jealousy. Mr. Buchanan, under the pseudonym of "Thomas Maitland" rushed into print with the damning essay that appeared in the _Contemporary Review_ for October 1871, under the title "The Fleshly School of Poetry." This attack was repeated by the same writer in a pamphlet. Rossetti in ill health and suffering from nervous fancies, considered that there was a conspiracy against him, a view that, had his health been stronger, he would not perhaps have adopted. The publication of the article aggravated his insomnia. Dr. Gordon Hake offered him his house at Roehampton in order to procure a change for the sufferer, who either by accident or of set purpose had taken the contents of a phial of laudanum, and lay for two days between life and death. Prompt treatment, and his strong constitution helped recovery. He was taken to Scotland where he resumed work on a replica of "Beata Beatrix." Out-of-door exercise, early hours, and absence of worries, helped a great deal to bring about his partial recovery. In September 1872 he left Scotland and went to Kelmscott where he shared a fine Elizabethan manor house with William Morris.

His work during 1872-1874 consisted mostly in repainting many of his earlier pictures. He worked again on "Lilith," "Beloved," "Monna Vanna," and others. In July 1874 he left Kelmscott and came back to London, never to return to the quiet manor house, which from this time was in possession of Morris alone.