WORK FROM 1858 TO 1862
The year 1858, while the Oxford affair was still in train, saw the
completion of two pen-and-ink drawings which had been in hand a long
time. These were _Hamlet and Ophelia_ and _Mary Magdalene at the
Door of Simon the Pharisee_.
[Illustration: MARY MAGDALENE AT THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE.]
The drawing of _Mary Magdalene_, perhaps the most perfect of all
Rossetti's early works, was begun at least by 1853, and continued to
occupy his thoughts in one form or another for many years. Rossetti
wrote a sonnet for the picture, which is found in his first volume,
called "Poems."
Another subject finished in 1858 was _Mary in the House of John_.
The scene is at late twilight, or in an eastern night, the red glow
of the sky casting a purple light over the clustered dwellings of
Nazareth, with deep blue hills beyond. In the interior of the room
are Mary and St. John, the latter seated in shadow, engaged in
striking light from a flint; whilst Mary, standing before the tall
window, fills a hanging lamp from a jar of oil.
Another important item to be recorded under 1858 is a water-colour
called _Before the Battle_, painted for Rossetti's American friend,
Professor Norton, of Harvard.
The most important work of 1859 is a highly-finished little head in
oils, called _Bocca Baciata_, which was bought by the late Mr. Boyce.
The model for this was Miss Fanny Cornforth, afterwards Mrs. Schott,
whose florid type of beauty reappears in a series of sensuous
pictures of the kind that Rossetti began to paint after
1862--_Aurelia_ (_Fazio's Mistress_), _The Blue Bower_, _The Lady at
her Toilet_, _Lilith_, and_ The Lady of the Fan_. These pictures,
and numerous portraits in oil and water-colour, give a sufficiently
recognizable idea of this model, who exercised almost as remarkable
an influence over Rossetti's life as over his art.
_Bonifazio's Mistress_, a specially charming little water-colour, was
painted in 1860. It shows a lady (dressed in the same brightly
be-ribanded flounces as Lucretia Borgia wears in the little 1851
group) who has been sitting to her lover, a painter, when suddenly
she has fallen back in her chair, dead.
The connection of this subject with the poet, Bonifazio (or Fazio)
degli Uberti is entirely fanciful. There can be little doubt that it
was intended to illustrate Rossetti's own story of "St. Agnes of
Intercession." _Bonifazio's Mistress_ has no connection whatever
either in subject or composition with the oil painting of the same
name done in 1863, and afterwards re-named _Aurelia_. The latter is
simply a three-quarter length figure of a lady plaiting her hair
before a toilet glass.
This (1860) was the year of Rossetti's marriage, as has already been
stated, and in June he was at Paris on his honeymoon. While there he
executed two pen-and-ink drawings, one of which was the design of
_How they met Themselves_, done to replace the earlier version of
1851, which had been lost. The other represents a scene from
Boswell's "Life of Johnson," a curious source of inspiration for
Rossetti, rendered more remarkable from the fact that the incident
chosen is of a humorous and spicy character. Dr. Maxwell told the
story how two young women from Staffordshire had come up to town to
consult Johnson about Methodism, in which they were much interested.
"Come," said he, "you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the
Mitre, and we will talk over that subject"; which they did, and after
dinner he took one of them on his knee, and fondled her for
half-an-hour together.
In 1861 Rossetti's translations from the Italian poets were at last
published, together with the "Vita Nuova." Rossetti thought out a
very charming design of two lovers kissing in a rose-garden, which he
proposed to etch on copper for the title-page. The plate, however,
displeased him, and he destroyed it. The central idea of this design
reappears in _Love's Greeting_, a panel designed for the Red House,
and in a water-colour of 1864 inscribed _Roman de la Rose_, in which
Love appears overshadowing the kissing pair with his wings.
In 1861 was painted, on a little panel, 10 by 8 inches, a portrait of
Mrs. Rossetti, called _Regina Cordium_ or _The Queen of Hearts_,
showing just the head and bare shoulders, on a gold ground, behind a
parapet on which rests one hand holding a purple pansy. A more
important outcome of the year is the fine composition known as
_Cassandra_. The subject is a scene on the walls of Troy just before
Hector's last battle. Rossetti wrote two sonnets for the drawing
which will be found in his volume of "Poems."
About this time (1861-1862) the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner
and Co. was just being started, with William Morris, Rossetti,
Faulkner, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Webb, and others as the active
promoters of a venture which was to reform the arts of decoration and
furniture making. Tapestry, furniture, wallpapers, stained glass,
painted panels, and later on carpet-weaving and dyeing, were among
the industries to which this band of highly original artists and
designers turned their attention. The Anglo-Catholic movement and
the demand for decoration of an aesthetic and sensuous kind gave the
new firm plenty to do, amongst their first commissions being the
embellishment of two new churches then being built by Bodley, St.
Martin's on the Hill, Scarborough, and St. Michael's at Brighton.
For the former Rossetti executed a design for two pulpit panels and
several windows, achieving from the very first a mastery over this
branch of art which few designers have surpassed. It is
characteristic of his original mind that he went right back to the
fundamental principles of _vitraux_, paying no attention whatever to
the elaborations which had grown round them, and recognizing that a
picture which was transparent, that is, seen by transmitted light,
must be conceived in flat tones and not made to give the illusion of
shading, as can be done in the case of a surface from which the light
is reflected.
The _Paolo and Francesca_ water-colour is generally attributed to the
year 1861, although no particular authority exists for this beyond an
auctioneer's catalogue. This beautiful little water-colour
represents the first compartment of the double subject. In it Paolo
and Francesca are seated before a window bearing the arms of
Malatesta. Outside is a bright and sunny landscape. The lovers have
stopped in the midst of their reading to give the fatal kiss that
sealed their doom.
In 1861 or 1862 Rossetti designed two woodcuts for his sister
Christina's "Goblin Market," published by Messrs. Macmillan. In 1865
he drew two more designs for "The Prince's Progress." The covers for
these two little volumes, as well as for his own when they appeared,
were designed by Rossetti, and are as original and effective and
tasteful as his decorative work invariably was.