1828-1882
[Sidenote: William Sharp’s _Dante Gabriel Rossetti_.]
“According to a sketch by Mr. Eyre Crowe, dated about this time,
Rossetti must have had anything but a robust appearance, being very
thin and even somewhat haggard in expression. He went about in a long
swallow-tailed coat of what was even in 1848 an antique pattern. That
his appearance in his twentieth and some subsequent years was that
of an ascetic I have been told by several, including himself, and in
addition to such pen-and-ink sketches as the above, and of himself
sitting to Miss Siddall (his future wife) for his portrait, there are
the perhaps more reliable portraitures in Mr. Millais’s _Isabella_
(painted in 1849), and Mr. Deverell’s _Viola_. On the other hand,
a beautifully-executed pencil head of himself in boyhood shows him
much removed from the ascetic type of later years, not unlike and
strongly suggestive of a young Keats or Chatterton; while in maturer
age he carefully drew his portrait from his mirrored image, the result
being a highly-finished pen-and-ink likeness. While speaking of
portraits, I may state that Rossetti was twice photographed, once in
Newcastle (which is the one publicly known, and upon which all other
illustrations have been based), and once standing arm-in-arm with Mr.
Ruskin, the latter being the best likeness of the poet-artist as he was
a quarter of a century ago. There is also an etching by Mr. Menpes,
which, however, is only founded on the well-known photograph; and,
finally, there is a portrait taken shortly after death by Mr. Frederick
Shields.”
[Sidenote: Hall Caine’s _Recollections of Rossetti_.]
“Very soon Rossetti came to me through the doorway in front, which
proved to be the entrance to his studio. Holding forth both hands
and crying, ‘Hulloa!’ he gave me that cheery hearty greeting which
I came to recognise as his alone, perhaps, in warmth and unfailing
geniality among all the men of our circle. It was Italian in its
spontaneity, and yet it was English in its manly reserve, and I
remember with much tenderness of feeling that never to the last (not
even when sickness saddened him, or after an absence of a few days or
even hours), did it fail him when meeting with those friends to whom
to the last he was really attached. Leading the way to the studio, he
introduced me to his brother, who was there upon one of the evening
visits, which at intervals of a week he was at that time making with
unfailing regularity. I should have described Rossetti, at this time,
as a man who looked quite ten years older than his actual age, which
was fifty-two, of full middle height and inclining to corpulence,
with a round face that ought, one thought, to be ruddy but was pale,
large gray eyes with a steady introspecting look, surmounted by broad
protrusive brows and a clearly-pencilled ridge over the nose, which
was well cut and had large breathing nostrils. The mouth and chin
were hidden beneath a heavy moustache and abundant beard, which grew
up to the ears, and had been of a mixed black-brown and auburn, and
were now streaked with gray. The forehead was large, round, without
protuberances, and very gently receding to where thin black curls, that
had once been redundant, began to tumble down to the ears. The entire
configuration of the head and face seemed to me singularly noble, and
from the eyes upwards full of beauty. He wore a pair of spectacles,
and, in reading, a second pair over the first: but these took little
from the sense of power conveyed by those steady eyes, and that ‘bar
of Michael Angelo.’ His dress was not conspicuous, being however
rather negligent than otherwise, and noticeable, if at all, only for
a straight sack-coat buttoned at the throat, descending at least to
the knees, and having large pockets cut into it perpendicularly at
the sides. This garment was, I afterwards found, one of the articles
of various kinds made to the author’s own design. When he spoke, even
in exchanging the preliminary courtesies of an opening conversation,
I thought his voice the richest I had ever known any one to possess.
It was a full deep baritone, capable of easy modulation, and with
undertones of infinite softness and sweetness, yet, as I afterwards
found, with almost illimitable compass, and with every gradation of
tone at command, for the recitation or reading of poetry.”--1880.
[Sidenote: William Sharp’s _Dante Gabriel Rossetti_].
“As to the personality of Dante Gabriel Rossetti much has been written
since his death, and it is now widely known that he was a man who
exercised an almost irresistible charm over most with whom he was
brought in contact. His manner could be peculiarly winning, especially
with those much younger than himself, and his voice was alike notable
for its sonorous beauty and for a magnetic quality that made the ear
alert, whether the speaker was engaged in conversation, recitation,
or reading. I have heard him read, some of them over and over again,
all the poems in the _Ballads and Sonnets_; and especially in such
productions as _The Cloud Confines_ was his voice as stirring as
a trumpet tone; but where he excelled was in some of the pathetic
portions of the _Vita Nuova_, or the terrible and sonorous passages
of _L’Inferno_, when the music of the Italian language found full
expression indeed. His conversational powers I am unable adequately to
describe, for during the four or five years of my intimacy with him
he suffered too much from ill-health to be a consistently brilliant
talker, but again and again I have seen instances of those marvellous
gifts that made him at one time a Sydney Smith in wit, and a Coleridge
in eloquence. In appearance he was, if anything, rather over middle
height, and, especially latterly, somewhat stout; his forehead was
of splendid proportions, recalling instantaneously to most strangers
the Stratford bust of Shakespeare; and his gray blue eyes were clear
and piercing, and characterised by that rapid penetrative gaze
so noticeable in Emerson. He seemed always to me an unmistakable
Englishman, yet the Italian element was frequently recognisable. As far
as his own opinion is concerned, he was wholly English.”--1878.