"I regard the man who has not sojourned in a tent as one who has not
thoroughly lived." W. H. H.
The first period of life was over. The mystic letters were used no more;
after the savage onslaughts of the press it had been determined that
Pre-Raphaelites should be recognised by their work alone, not by any
arbitrary signal. Henceforth each of the Brothers followed his own line.
Marriage came in due course. Mr. Holman Hunt has been twice married; he
has two sons and a daughter.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--THE TRIUMPH OF THE INNOCENTS
"You know that in the most beautiful former conceptions
of the Flight into Egypt, the Holy Family were always
represented as watched over and ministered to by
attendant angels. But only the safety and peace of the
Divine Child and its mother are thought of. No sadness
or wonder of meditation returns to the desolate homes of
Bethlehem.
"But in this English picture all the story of the
escape, as of the flight, is told in fulness of peace
and yet of compassion. The travel is in the dead of the
night, the way unseen and unknown; but partly stooping
from the starlight, and partly floating on the desert
mirage, move with the Holy Family the glorified souls
of the Innocents. Clear in celestial light, and
gathered into child garlands of gladness, they look to
the Child in whom they live, and yet for whom they die.
Waters of the River of Life flow before on the sands;
the Christ stretches out His arms to the nearest of
them--leaning from His mother's breast.... You may well
imagine for yourselves how the painter's ... better
than magical power of giving effects of intense light,
has aided the effort of his imagination, while the
passion of his subject has developed in him a swift
grace of invention which, for my own part, I never
recognised in his design till now."
_Ruskin._
The canvas is now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Mr. J. T. Middlemore has a replica.]
"The Scapegoat"--a subject which he had thought of suggesting to
Landseer--was painted by the shore of the Dead Sea. After many
negotiations, for the country was in a troubled state and he risked his
life by going, he encamped there, with a little band of followers to
protect him, and a goat. Soleiman, one of the Arabs, desired--though
only seven years younger than himself--to be his son. By what name
should he call him? _Hunt?_ That was no name at all. _Holman?_ That was
not much better. _William_, however, pronounced "Wullaum," he "found
very good."
One night, when the dews fell heavily, and they were some way from the
encampment, Hunt, afraid of the effect of a chill, began waltzing--with
his gun for a partner--to keep himself warm. Soleiman was overcome with
amazement. "Henceforth let me be your brother," said he--unconscious
that he had become a Pre-Raphaelite--as he flung his arms round the
neck of this wonderful man. "You are indeed inspired; you dance like a
dervish; you _are_ one. Can you do it again?" "Yes, my brother," and
away the wonderful man went, a second and a third time, again and yet
again. He was asked to repeat the performance for the benefit of the
others, who yelled with delight when they heard of it, but this he
declined to do; and the next day Soleiman invited him to marry the
daughter of the sheik his uncle, and to become sheik instead of himself
when the old man died, that he might lead the tribe in battle, and act
as dancing-dervish in times of peace. Where had he been born? In London?
What was London?--a mountain? or a plain? Not a city like Jerusalem with
walls and gates and shops?--"Never, my brother! I will never believe
that you are a citizen--never! I know you are an English bedawee, and
you were born in a tent." In spite of all this filial and fraternal
affection, Soleiman was not much good when danger threatened. "There are
robbers," he declared one day; "they are coming this way--one, two,
three, on horseback, and two--wait, three--yes, four on foot. You must
put down your umbrella, shut up your picture, cover it with stones. They
will not be here for an hour. We will go up in the mountains." "No,"
said Hunt, he should stay where he was, it was a good work that he had
in hand; Allah would help him; he was quite content. After several
passionate appeals, off went Soleiman by himself, taking the donkey. The
robbers presently appeared, seven of them, on foot and on horseback,
armed with long spears, with guns and swords and clubs. The painter
painted on unconcernedly. They drew up in a semicircle round him, and
the chief shouted for water. The artist looked at him from his head to
his horse's feet--at the others also, and then resumed his work. Again
the chief clamoured. They might have water, the artist said at last,
since the day was hot; but Englishmen were not the servants of Arabs,
and he was an Englishman; they must fetch it themselves. And he
continued to paint. "Are you here alone?" they inquired. "No; there was
an Arab." Thereupon they requested that he might be called. "But _I_
don't want him," said the artist. "_We_ want him." "Well then, _you_
call him. His name is Soleiman." Soleiman, however, made no reply.
"There is no one, or he would answer," they said distrustfully. "He is
afraid. You know best how to reassure him." At length Soleiman came
slowly down through the rocks, driving the donkey. A long conversation
followed--a wonderful description by his "brother" of the gun with two
souls which he had, of the pistol that would fire more than five times
without reloading, of his accomplishments as a dancing-dervish and as a
story-teller (especially about Lot), of the manner in which he wrote all
day in coloured inks the sky, the mountains, the plain, the sea, even
the salt, on that large paper.
The Arabs became intensely suspicious. What could these things mean?
He had the white goat led over the ground, they supposed, to charm it.
He was a magician. He would go back to England; he would wipe out the
coloured inks with a sponge; he would find the Cities of the Plain
underneath; he would be lord of a great treasure. For the present they
agreed that they would let him alone; but he considered it prudent to
waltz home that night.
"My dreams kept me with the Brotherhood," he says. Once he had fallen
asleep within his tent, he was back in England among the old set,
"talking of plans and thoughts beloved of both."
The Academy hung "The Scapegoat" on the line; and it was sold for L450,
but "The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple," begun in Jerusalem,
could not be finished for some time; he was compelled to work at smaller
pictures which would bring in ready money. In the end, after a friendly
consultation with his old foe, Dickens, he asked and obtained for it
L5500, the largest sum that had ever yet been paid for an English
picture.
"Isabella" was painted in Florence in days of great sadness; a year
after the artist completed, with his own hand, the marble monument
designed for his young wife.
"The Shadow of Death" ("Is not this the Carpenter"?) was painted on his
return to the East, and yet again he went thither, to bring back with
him "The Triumph of the Innocents" and "The Holy Fire." A number of
Mahommedan ladies, from the harem of a neighbouring "effendi," came to
the house at Jerusalem, and asked to see "The Innocents," while it was
still in progress. The leading lady counted up the figures.
"Seventeen babies in the large picture, and several more in the
smaller one, with the Sib Miriam,[7] Al Issa Messiah, and Mar Jusif.
This is very well," she said, "but on the Day of Judgment what will
you do?" "Ah," I returned, "I can trust only in the mercy of the
Beneficent; but why, pray, ask me that question?" She returned,
"Because the souls of these beings that you have made will be
required of you, and what will you say then?" My reply, justified on
metaphysical principles, was, "I hope every one of these will be
present to justify me." She looked bewildered, but then turning to
her flock, re-echoed my assurance, saying, "Oh, if indeed you can
satisfy God the Just with their souls, it will be well with you!"[8]
[7] The Virgin Mary.
[8] "Pre-Raphaelitism," etc., vol. ii p. 328.
Music and rosy dawn are the inspiration of "May Morning"; on Magdalen
Tower a band of choristers chant their hymn to the Light of Heaven,
according to ancient custom, upon the 1st of May. "The Lady of Shalott"
is fresh in the recollection of all who have seen her. A larger version
of "The Light of the World" has been purchased recently by Mr. Charles
Booth, for the benefit of the nation. Since that time the artist has not
been able to work.
In 1881 Rossetti died. His former comrade offered to visit him when he
heard of the illness; but the offer was courteously declined by Mr.
William Rossetti. In 1896 grave fears began to be expressed about
Millais. "The truth of his doomed condition, at first resolutely
ignored, came very suddenly to him, and then day by day he stepped down
into the grave, but never lost his composure or noble personality."
These quiet words are the fitting close of the tribute paid to him by
his oldest and greatest friend, in that book which is a record as much
of friendship as of art.