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.
Besides retouching his earlier work during the time of his stay at
Kelmscott, Rossetti started a number of new canvases, and made a
certain number of studies for use in future work. Among them are: "Rosa
Triplex," three heads from the same sitter, Miss May Morris. This
drawing is one of four or five versions. A portrait in red chalk on
grey-green paper of Mrs. W. J. Stillman, "La Donna de la Fiamma," and
"Silence," probably studies for pictures never painted, the little head
of a lady holding a small branch of rose-leaves called "Rose-leaf."
"Mariana," an oil painting, its title taken from a scene of "Measure
for Measure," and "A Lady with a Fan," being a portrait of Mrs. Schott,
were all prepared about this time. He also started the first studies
for his big picture, "Dante's Dream," among them a study from Mrs.
Morris for the head of the dead Beatrice, a head of Dante, and studies
for the two maidens holding the pall. "Troy Town," after his own
ballad, and "The Death of Lady Macbeth," are two designs for pictures
never painted. "Pandora" was completed in 1871. "Water Willow," a
portrait of Mrs. Morris is specially interesting because the river
landscape behind represents Kelmscott. A coloured chalk study for that
picture exists, the only difference between the portrait and the study
being that the background of the latter represents a river without
the view of Kelmscott. The "Dante's Dream" begun in 1870 was finished
towards the end of 1871. It is the largest picture Rossetti ever
painted, the subject is that of the early water-colour of 1856, and the
picture illustrates the following:
"Then Love spoke thus: 'Now all shall be made clear;
Come and behold our lady where she lies.'
* * * * *
Then carried me to see my lady dead;
And standing at her head
Her ladies put a veil over her;
And with her was such very humbleness
That she appeared to say, 'I am at peace.'"
In the composition Dante is led by Love to where Beatrice lies dead,
and Love bends down to kiss her. On either side of the bier where she
lies, two maidens dressed in green are holding a pall covered with May
flowers and the floor is strewed with poppies, emblem of death. On each
side of the picture there are winding staircases through which one sees
the sunny streets of Florence. Love is dressed in flame colour and
birds of the same hue are flying about to suggest that the place is
filled with the Spirit of Love.
Proserpine was the next picture Rossetti undertook. It was begun on
four canvases. The fourth when finished was sold. Rossetti, who at
that time had assistants to help him in making the replicas of his
earlier work, painted to satisfy the demand of his patrons, and much
controversy raged round this picture. It is impossible to say if it
was entirely painted by him, but he owned to it although it was not
a good one. The purchaser was dissatisfied so he agreed to take it
back. The three unfinished versions were cut down and transformed into
heads, one of which, with the adding of some floral accessories, and a
slight change in the hands, was called "Blanziflore" or "Snowdrops."
One cannot help being a little puzzled by the notion of beginning four
canvases of the same picture at the same time, it suggests too much of
the commercial spirit.
In 1872 "Veronica Veronese," and the "Bower Meadow," were painted, the
former illustrating the following lines, supposed to be a quotation
taken from Girolamo Ridolfi's letters which are inscribed on the frame:
"Se penchant vivement la Véronica jeta les premières notes sur la
feuille vierge. Ensuite elle prit l'archet du violon pour réaliser
son rêve; mais avant de décrocher l'instrument suspendu, elle resta
quelques instants immobile en écoutant l'oiseau inspirateur, pendant
que sa main gauche errait sur les cordes cherchant le motif suprême
encore éloigné. C'était le mariage des voix de la nature et de
l'âme--l'aube d'une création mystique."
The Lady Veronica, dressed in green, is sitting in front of a little
table on which is her music manuscript. Behind her on the left-hand top
corner is a canary perched on a cage and at her side stands a glass
of daffodils. She is leaning forward as if listening to the bird,
plucking with her left hand the strings of a violin hanging on the wall
in front of her while she holds the bow in her right hand.
[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--ASTARTE SYRIACA
From the oil painting (74 in. by 43 in.) now in the Corporation
Art Gallery at Manchester
This picture was painted for Mr. Clarence Fry of the firm Elliot and
Fry, in 1877 and was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1883.]
The "Bower Meadow" represents two women playing instruments and two
dancing figures, for which he made charming crayon studies. All these
figures were painted on an old background study of trees and foliage
he had painted in 1850, in his Pre-Raphaelite days when he was working
with Holman Hunt.
The next great oil canvas is dated 1873, and is called "The
Ghirlandata." To this year belongs "Ligeia Siren," a drawing of a
sea-maiden playing on a musical instrument, a preliminary study for
"Sea Spell."
"The Damsel of the Sanc Grael" was painted in 1874; it is a second
version of that subject strangely showing the psychological change in
Rossetti. The primitive simplicity so characteristic of the mediæval
legend and also of his early work has disappeared. The austere damsel
has become a "pretty" girl, with fair flowing hair, who holds a goblet.
The unfinished "Boat of Love" was also begun in 1874. Rossetti came
back to London in that year as has already been stated.
The dissolution of the firm Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. took
place at that time and was reconstituted under the sole management of
Morris. The dissolution did not take place without a certain amount
of friction, caused by the disagreement between Morris and Brown.
Rossetti seems to have taken Brown's part, and although Rossetti and
Morris did not quarrel, they saw very little of one another from that
date. But it is well to remember that Rossetti lived a very secluded
life, seeing very few people and labouring under the delusion that a
widespread conspiracy existed against him. This was apparently one of
the hallucinations resulting from the habitual use of chloral.
The end of 1875 and beginning of 1876 were passed first in a house
at Bognor and after at a friend's in Hampshire. The artist was then
working on his pictures, "The Blessed Damozel," "The Spirit of the
Rainbow," and "Forced Music."
In 1877 serious illness kept him two months in bed, and when better
he was taken to a little cottage near Herne Bay. There he was able to
resume his work and drew a crayon group of his mother and sister as
well as two separate drawings of his sister and one of his mother. To
that year belongs the "Astarte Syriaca" (now in the Corporation Art
Gallery of Manchester). The Syrian Venus stands against a red sunset
sky in which the moon is rising, gazing full face, with large dreamy
eyes. On the right and left two angel figures, holding torches, look
upwards.
In that year the Grosvenor Gallery was founded and Madox Brown,
Rossetti, and Burne-Jones were asked to exhibit. Madox Brown and
Rossetti refused, but Burne-Jones accepted. The exhibition of his work
there brought him the enormous popularity he enjoyed. Down to that
time the public curiosity which had been roused by the controversies
following the forming of the P.R.B. had not been satisfied.