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_.

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.

(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.