After 1877 Rossetti kept strictly to his house at 16 Cheyne Walk
visited only by a few faithful friends.
He began to write again in 1878. By March 1881 he had enough material
for a new volume, "Ballads and Sonnets," the MS. of which was offered
to and accepted by Messrs. Ellis & White on the same terms as his first
book, now out of print after running into a sixth edition. The "Ballads
and Sonnets" met with quite as great success as the earlier volume,
this time without any discordant note of criticism. In this year
Rossetti sold his great picture of "Dante's Dream" to the Corporation
of Liverpool.
The two finished works of 1878 are: "A Vision of Fiametta," and a
water-colour called "Bruna Brunelleschi." To that year must be added
the unfinished design called "Desdemona's Death Song," various studies
for the figure of Desdemona, a design of the entire composition done
on a scale about half-life size, as well as a beginning of the picture
on canvas, which was not continued. The Faust subject that he intended
to paint, "Gretchen, or Risen at Dawn," was not more advanced. As time
went on and his health failed his output diminished.
In 1879 Rossetti painted a replica of the "Blessed Damozel" with its
predella, changing the background of lovers and substituting two
angels' heads. "La Donna de la Fenestra" was also completed in that
year.
In 1880 and 1881 Rossetti was working on three large pictures, "The
Day Dream," "The Salutation of Beatrice," and "La Pia," as well as on
"Found," the early attempt at a modern subject that he was never able
to finish. He painted several replicas, the most important being a
smaller version of "Dante's Dream." The "Daydream" begun in 1868 was
also completed at this time and the picture has since been given to the
South Kensington Museum by its owner Mr. Ionidès. "The Salutation of
Beatrice" is quite different from the earlier design of the same name
and shows those defects of his later work that we have pointed out; it
was not quite finished at the time of his death. "La Pia" is the last
picture painted and shows the same faults as the last mentioned.
In September 1881 Rossetti went for a trip in the lake district of
Cumberland accompanied by Mr. Hall Caine, but after a month his health
grew worse and he returned in haste to London. A few days later he
became so ill that he required very careful nursing. After a partial
recovery from this illness he was once more interrupted in his work
by an attack of nervous paralysis, which seized him suddenly. This
last attack was due to the chloral he had been in the habit of taking
for so long and it was then strictly forbidden. The habit of so many
years was not to be broken without much discomfort and suffering, but
he gradually got better. As soon as he was well enough he was taken to
Birchington-on-Sea in February 1882, there he managed to work a little,
but was soon attacked by an old disorder, and in his weakened state
of health he could not throw it off. He grew weaker and worse. Death
came with the 10th of April 1882, and the painter poet is buried in the
little churchyard of Birchington.
In the last days of his life, when he could paint no more, he made an
attempt to finish the story of "St. Agnes of Intercession" which was
begun for the "Germ," he also completed the ballad of "Jan Van Hunks,"
and wrote a couple of sonnets for his drawing called the "Question."
Most of the critics who have written on Rossetti deplore the fact that
he did not learn to paint, but to artists one of the greatest charms
of his pictures (especially the early ones) is the unexpectedness of
their composition. We owe that charm in a great measure to the fact
that happily he had not been spoiled by the sophisticated teaching of
Academic Schools, but had kept the bloom of his poetical inspiration.
We must thank the instinct of the young man, which made him avoid a
teaching which is bound to be fatal to both realism and romanticism. It
may be that he himself deplored the lack of training at certain moments
of discouragement in his life, but the kind of training available at
the time of his début would not have added much to his achievement. He
managed to say what he had to say, and in many cases to say it well.
He saved himself the loss of time necessary to forget certain of the
artistic préjugés then in vogue, they would have been very much in his
way, even if he had quite succeeded in getting rid of them. The rather
amateurish side to Rossetti's art is vastly compensated for by the
precious qualities he has been able to preserve.
It is unfortunate that, through his refusal to exhibit, the public has
been acquainted first with his later work, which shows the decline of
his faculties caused by his ill health. Neither the fresh creations of
his early work nor the gorgeous pieces of his middle period are as well
known as they deserve to be.
As a young man Rossetti possessed an extraordinary influence over the
members of the group round him. Later when his work became less sincere
his influence declined and what promised to be at the beginning a great
renaissance of the English School has ended with him. Such a disaster
is certain to befall the school or the artists who do not refresh
themselves continually by the "communion" with nature. Ruskin says in
his Pre-Raphaelitism: "If they adhere to their principles, and paint
nature as it is around them, with the help of modern science, with the
earnestness of the men of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
they will, as I said, found a new and noble school in England. If
their sympathies with the early artists lead them into mediævalism
or Romanism, they will of course come to nothing." These words were
prophetic.
The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London
The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh