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."
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE BORGIA FAMILY
From the water-colour painted in 1873 and lately purchased by the
South Kensington Museum
Rossetti first painted this subject in 1851--a smaller size 9½ by 10
in. It is one of the richest of his small compositions.]
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."
[Illustration: PLATE VII.--DANTE'S DREAM
From the oil painting (7 ft. 1 by 10 ft. 6½) now in the Walker
Art Gallery, Liverpool
This picture which is considered by some to be Rossetti's most
important work, illustrates the following passage in the Vita Nuova:
"Then my heart that was so full of love said unto me: 'Is it true
that our lady lieth dead'; and it seemed to me that I went to look
upon the body wherein that blessed and most noble spirit had had its
abiding-place. And so strong was this idle imagining, that it made
me behold my lady in death, whose head certain ladies seemed to be
covering with a white veil."
This picture, painted in 1871, passed through several hands and was
taken back by Rossetti from Mr. Valpy, on account of its large size
in exchange for several smaller works. It was eventually bought by
the Liverpool corporation.
Rossetti first treated this subject in a little water-colour painted
for Miss Heaton in 1856.]
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.