sister’s old thing, named _An Argument_,[215] which is at least long
enough and in a narrative form. Tupper, to whom I read it, is very
much delighted with it; but the fact is, it is not quite up to the
mark.
Tuesday 19th.--... Gabriel, coming home from Brown’s, told me he had
there met Robert Dickinson, who has undertaken the publication of
_The Germ_. This is the best thing that could have happened for it
perhaps.
Wednesday 20th.--Patmore sent me his paper on Macbeth; which is
devoted to showing that the idea of obtaining the crown was not
suggested to Macbeth by the Witches, but had been previously
contemplated by him. It is very acute and well written, and will fill
some twenty pages. Our difficulties as to illustrations continue.
The only plans we have thought of are either to make an etching for
our sister’s poem in two compartments--one of the girl spinning,
and the other of the battlefield, or (as Tupper thinks preferable)
of the avalanche; or else to take some subject from Gabriel’s _Hand
and Soul_ in the first No. Tupper decided to call on Gabriel at his
study, to talk this over; but it so happened that Gabriel stopped at
home, touching-up his _Dante in Exile_.
Thursday 21st.--... I called on Millais, and asked him whether he
was able to do the etching for next month--in which case the No.
would at all events have, of course, to come out later than usual in
the month: but he says he is now so fully engaged with his picture,
having just set a white drapery, that he cannot undertake it: and
this is perhaps best. We shall now miss a month altogether, and come
out in April properly prepared. Millais has done (or begun) the heads
of the Virgin and of Christ. Gabriel received from Orchard the first
part of a _Dialogue on Art_, being one of a series he will write, if
found suitable. Gabriel read it to Stephens and John Tupper, by whom,
as well as himself, it was highly admired.... W. B. Scott’s book
about his brother David arrived; this we mean to review as soon as
may be for _The Germ_....
Friday 22nd.--We settled that it is impossible to bring out a No. for
March.... Woolner, Stephens, and Bernhard Smith, were at Gabriel’s
study in the evening; and Ford Brown also came in later. He read
us the second of his papers on _The Mechanism of a Historical
Picture_,[216] and has thoughts of writing something on the choice of
subject. He warned me against being too downright and sarcastic in
the art-notices I write for _The Critic_. Gabriel having asked him
to do us an etching for the next or some early No., he proposed one
of his designs from _King Lear_[217] which he would execute double
the size of the other etchings, requiring a fold down the middle. The
subject we last stopped at was _The Leave-taking of Cordelia and her
Sisters_. Gabriel proposes to write an illustrative poem for it. This
etching of Brown’s would do capitally for show in Dickinson’s window.
Gabriel has painted the chasuble of the Angel, and the Virgin’s arms:
he and Brown discussed the background, the bed, and other of the
accessories....
Saturday 23rd.--Gabriel spent the evening at Dickinson’s, where
Brown, Woolner, Thomas, and Hunt, were also present. Hunt brought
a Hastings paper, in which there is a very cleverly-written review
of _The Germ_, not altogether laudatory. On leaving Dickinson’s,
Gabriel went home with Hunt to see the picture. There is some thought
of changing our magazine’s name to _The Artist_ or something of the
kind; Gabriel is the chief advocate for this; and, if it is to be
done, now is the time certainly, when we are about to begin with a
new publisher, etc....
Monday 25th.--I got home, from Tupper’s, Orchard’s _Dialogue on Art_,
which Gabriel and I read over, making a few alterations in style &c.
as authorized by a letter from himself that Gabriel has received.
Gabriel continued touching up and adding to his _Dante in Exile_.
Tuesday 26th.--This was the evening appointed for me to call on
Marston.... I met Hervey, and Bedingfield, author of _The Peer
and the Blacksmith_, &c. What Hervey admires most, and that very
highly indeed, in the 2nd No. of _The Germ_, is Gabriel’s _Blessed
Damozel_, which he has read to Marston, who agrees in admiring it.
We talked of Bailey’s new poem, _The Angel World_, just come out,
of Browning, Mrs. Browning, &c. Marston says that Browning, before
publishing _Sordello_, sent it him to read, saying that this time
the public should not accuse him at any rate of being unintelligible
(!!). Browning’s system of composition is to write down on a slate,
in prose, what he wants to say, and then to turn it into verse,
striving after the greatest amount of condensation possible; thus,
if an exclamation will suggest his meaning, he substitutes this for
a whole sentence. Mrs. Browning, I find, had published a volume
of original poems before her _Prometheus--An Essay on Mind_ &c.
which came out in ’26. Of this, Marston showed me a review with
extracts, in an old magazine called _The Sunbeam_, to which he had
contributed....
Thursday 28th.--Gabriel went to Brown’s in the evening, to have
a sketch of his head made on copper as an exercise for Brown in
etching.[218] This was done with much freedom of hand....
Sunday, 3rd March.--Gabriel had White, the model, to sit to him for
the arms of his Angel Gabriel. He is now looking out for a woman
with red hair[219] for the Virgin. I went to see Millais’s picture,
at which I found him working--his brother standing to him for the
chest of the man knocking out a nail. The figures of St. John and
the Virgin, the head of Christ, the legs of the assistant and of St.
Joseph, are done, as well as the ground and some other accessory
portions; Alexander Tupper is to be the assistant. Millais has sold
his _Ferdinand_ to Mr. Ellison, the collector, for £150--£50 more
than it had been at first commissioned for. I saw the kind and
patronizing review which _The Art Journal_ gives of _The Germ_;
saying that he (The Art Journalist) must doff the critic, and not
dwell on minor faults, lest the Germ should not fructify....
Wednesday 6th.--I went to see Collinson and Hunt. Collinson, ...
after this year, ... has made up his mind to cut the Wilkie style
of art for the Early Christian; and what he has in his head for the
subject of his next picture is his old design (in the days of the
venerable Cyclographic)[220] _The Novitiate_, into which he would
probably introduce another figure--that of the Lady Abbess....
Hunt has just finished the wolf-skin on the foremost savage at the
door.... The models who sit to him &c. take the boy on the ground
for an unnecessarily ugly girl, and the hindermost savage (his
friend Collins) for an old negress (!). “Sloshy”[221] comes now to
see him frequently, and is beginning to look on himself as quite a
P.R.B.--talking of “we,” and saying that Collinson seems quite one of
“us.” It seems, however, that he is really labouring to free himself
somewhat from the slough of slosh Hunt found him in at first, and
has in consequence quite offended some amateur Lord’s son (or some
person of the kind) to whom he showed one of his recent attempts....
I finished reading for the first time Bailey’s _Angel World_, which
must be reviewed for _The Germ_ as soon as possible. It is nothing
very wonderful--very far less great and powerful than _Festus_.
Thursday 7th.--... I got a letter from R. H. Horne, to whom we had
sent the two Nos. of _The Germ_. He expresses himself pleased with
it, and hopes it may succeed, but does not at all expect it will do
so as regards sale.
Saturday 9th.--Gabriel went to see Woolner, who has been sticking
hard to his statue of late. Here Gabriel met Cross, who knows some
one who will do for the head of his angel.
Sunday 10th.--Cross’s man called on Gabriel, who found him to have
a most splendid head. Not being very well, he did not paint much
to-day. He has begun altering the position of the embroidery-stand,
and doing the bed, and has nearly finished the blue curtain behind
the Virgin’s head....
Tuesday 12th.--A copy of Howitt’s paper, _The Standard of Freedom_,
was left us by Bateman, in which there is a very favourable review
of _The Germ_.
Wednesday 13th.--The Tuppers came to Gabriel’s study to have a talk
about our next No. In the first place it was decided, after a good
deal of discussion, to change the name of the magazine, and Aleck
Tupper suggested _Art and Poetry, being Thoughts towards Nature_,
as a title. This we all think better than _The Artist_, and it was
accordingly adopted. Brown expressed some apprehension that he
might fail in getting his etching ready; and proposed that Gabriel,
Woolner, and Hancock, should each set about one, and that whichever
is finished in time should come into this No. Gabriel will take as
his subject the painting by Chiaro of his own soul, from the _Hand
and Soul_ which appears in No. 1.: of this he had thought before
as a frontispiece to the volume--if one ever were to be completed.
Some poems were read over, among them John Tupper’s “Sixteen
Specials”;[222] to which I still object, as being too jocular and
technical in style. Hunt is getting quite confident about finishing
his picture, and even in very comfortable time....
Thursday 14th.--Gabriel having to think about his etching, the task
of writing a poem illustrative of Brown’s design has been transferred
to me....
Wednesday 20th.--Orchard sent Gabriel a second portion of his first
_Dialogue on Art_, treating herein chiefly of early Christian (or,
as he terms it, Pre-Raphael) Art, and seeming to out-P.R. the P.R.B.
The word is impolitic, and must be altered. Tupper gave me the first
proofs of No. 3.... He has written out also a new prospectus, which
he gave me to consider.
Thursday 21st.--I went to Patmore’s with the proof of his _Macbeth_.
He has got one out of some half-dozen copies of Tennyson’s Elegies
that have been printed strictly for private perusal; the publication
of the work being postponed for some while, till about Christmas.
Patmore says Tennyson is too lazy to go to Woolner’s for his
portrait, but will be at home for him any evening he may call. He
learned Italian so as to be able to read Dante, Patmore says, in
one fortnight’s study. Patmore himself is desirous of making the
experiment; and would, if he thought he could succeed equally well.
He has been occupied the last month with his poem on Marriage,[223]
of which, however, he has not meanwhile written a line; but, having
meditated the matter, is now about to do so. He expresses himself
quite confident of being able to keep it up at the same pitch as the
few astonishing lines he has yet written, and which he read us some
time ago. He is now anxious to have published as soon as possible his
papers advocating certain principles in architecture, as the subject
has of late been treated by others, and he is fearful of finding
himself in a certain manner forestalled. He was a good deal struck
with the quotations in my notice of _The Strayed Reveller_;[224] and
has also a great desire to hear Gabriel’s _Bride-Chamber Talk_, of
which he has heard Woolner and Millais speak. Brown finished to-day
his design for the King Lear etching, and Gabriel his of Chiaro’s
painting. He is now engaged, as regards writing, on a tale entitled
_An Autopsychology_,[225] originally suggested to himself by an image
he introduced into _Bride-Chamber Talk_....
Saturday 23rd.--... In the morning Gabriel had been at work
repainting the Virgin’s head in his picture. He has begun his
etching--as also has Brown. To-day’s _Athenæum_ contains an
announcement of “the new poem by Mr. Browning”--_Christmas Eve and
Easter Day_--to appear on the 1st April, price six shillings. There
is also a review here, among _Poetry of the Million_, of a volume
by a Rev. Mr. Harston, containing decidedly good things, and which
deserves to be reviewed in _Art and Poetry_.[226]
Monday 25th.--I called on Collinson on my way to see Hunt, and the
latter himself came in while I was there. He has been on a foraging
expedition to Battersea Fields after Gipsies, on the recommendation
of one who sat to him for his Druid’s head, and as he wants to get
some woman with good hands of a proper savage brownness. He finds
himself quite disabused of old ideas concerning “sloshiness” and
commonplace of gipsies, having fallen in with some of the most
extraordinary-looking people conceivable. He found a very beautiful
woman for what he wants, fit for Cleopatra; she consented to sit for
£5 an hour, but finally came down to a shilling, and fixed a day to
come. His Cleopatra asked him for a pot of beer, over which she and a
most hideous old hag, her mother, made their bargain....
Tuesday 26th.--Gabriel and Brown continued at work on their etchings.
A letter came telling Gabriel of the death of Orchard on Saturday:
it might be well to see about getting together any MSS. he may have
left, and publishing them. His death seems to have resulted from the
general state of low health in which he always was, as no particular
cause is mentioned. If I could get at sufficient materials, I should
like to write a notice of him for _The Critic_.[227]
Wednesday 27th.--... The two etchings were to have been sent in
to-day, but have been delayed, as Brown and Gabriel think it better
to have proofs taken by some printer without sending the plates all
the way to Clement’s Lane for the purpose. The biting-in was done by
Shenton, by Seddon’s advice.
Thursday 28th.--Brown had his proof taken; which he sent in the
evening, together with the plate, to Tupper’s. Gabriel’s also was
taken, but disgusted him; whereat he tore up the impression and
scratched the plate over.... George Tupper, being inclined to retain
Aylott and Jones as joint Publishers with the Dickinsons, went to
see them about it, and settled matters accordingly. He is of opinion
that, as Dickinson is a Print Publisher, it is better to have in the
concern some one whose business is strictly in books.... Brown, not
thinking very highly of his etching, stipulated at first that his
name should not be published; but was finally persuaded to allow
it--every one else thinking the work excellent.
Friday 29th.--Gabriel painted at the feet and arm of the angel
from White. He had Miss Love[228] to sit for the Virgin’s hair,
and is also repainting the head entirely. He has finished the
embroidery-stand; and of the background done a curious lamp Brown
has got, and a vase. The angel’s head is being painted from a model,
Lambert, of whom he has had two or three sittings. We went to
Stephens’s in the evening, when, finding he had gone on to Tupper’s,
we followed him thither.... The family lived through a whole act of
_Paracelsus_, Tennyson’s _Daydream_, _The Raven_, and several of
Browning’s lyrics, for which Gabriel was called on by John Tupper....
Monday, 1st April.--Gabriel touched-up the head of his Virgin. I went
to the British Artists’ Exhibition (Suffolk Street), where there are
some astounding Anthonys--about the only things not bad in the place.
Browning’s new poem is out, and Stephens beat us in getting it first.
I began reading....
Sunday 7th.--For this morning I was engaged to sit to Hunt, ...
the working of the head and hands of the principal figure....
There remains now scarcely any uncovered canvas: he has however a
tremendous deal still to do for so short a time, two or three heads
requiring much yet. His frame with four Bible-mottos has arrived....
I did not get home till too late to sit to Gabriel, who had wanted
me for a final re-touching of the Angel’s hand. He has got some
spirits of wine and chloride of something, to make the flame for the
Angel’s feet....
Monday 8th.--... Gabriel went to see Millais’s picture, which is
finished. He himself had to work hard at his background all day,
besides doing something to the Virgin’s head; and had Deverell to
assist him in doing certain things. I finished reading Browning’s new
poem, and read it the second time aloud to Deverell.
* * * * *
From 8th April, up to to-day Sunday July 21st, I have neglected the
P.R.B. Journal. My excuse is, plenty else to do--the impelling cause,
idleness. But I hope henceforth to persevere.
Firstly, _The Gurm_[229] died with its fourth No.--leaving us
a legacy of Tupper’s bill--£33 odd, of which the greater part,
I take it, remains still unpaid. Our last gasp was perhaps the
best--containing Orchard’s really wonderful _Dialogue_, Gabriel’s
sonnets on pictures, etc. etc.; with an etching--not very
satisfactory in comparison with the standard of our promise--by
Deverell. Placards were posted and paraded about daily before the
Academy--but to no effect. _The Germ_ was doomed, and succumbed to
its doom.
Millais’s sacred subject, his _Ferdinand and Ariel_, and his
_Portrait of Mr. Drury and his Grandchild_--Hunt’s _Converted British
Family sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the
Druids_--and Collinson’s _Answering the Emigrant’s Letter_--went to
the Academy, where they are still exhibiting; Gabriel having at the
last moment elected to send to the National Institution--formerly
Free Exhibition. The “Carpenter’s Shop” of Millais, which has now
become famous as “No. 518,” sold, the morning before sending in,
for £350--Mr. Farrer the picture-dealer being the purchaser. Hunt’s
picture and this are hung half on the line, the portrait on the
line, and the _Ferdinand_ on the ground; Collinson’s, at a height
where all its merits are lost. Millais’s picture has been the signal
for a perfect crusade against the P.R.B. The mystic letters, with
their signification, have appeared in all kinds of papers; first, I
believe, in a letter, _Town Talk and Table Talk_, in the _Illustrated
News_, written by Reach, who must have derived his knowledge, we
conjecture, from Munro.[230] But the designation is now so notorious
that all concealment is at an end. _The Athenæum_ opened with a
savage assault[231] on Gabriel, who answered in a letter which the
editor did not think it expedient to publish; and a conversation
which Millais had with Frank Stone, and in which the latter (speaking
of the picture) introduced several of the observations of _The
Athenæum_, coupled with some other circumstances, make it tolerably
evident that _he_ was the author of that and subsequent critiques.
In noticing Hunt and Millais, nearly a whole page was devoted to
a systematic discussion of (assumed) P.R.B. principles--which F.
S. rather overthrew and demolished than otherwise. In all the
papers--_The Times_, _The Examiner_, _The Daily News_, even to
Dickens’s _Household Words_, where a leader was devoted to the
P.R.B., and devoted them to the infernal gods--the attack on Millais
has been most virulent and audacious; in none more than in _A Glance
at the Exhibition_, published by Cundall, and bearing manifold traces
of a German source[232]. Indeed, the P.R.B. has unquestionably been
one of the topics of the season. The “notoriety” of Millais’s picture
may be evidenced by the fact, received from undoubted authority, of
the Queen’s having sent to have it brought to her from the walls
of the R.A., which her recent accouchement had prevented her from
visiting.--Hunt’s picture, Gabriel’s, and Collinson’s, remain unsold.
Not long after the opening of the Exhibitions the Brotherhood had
the misfortune to lose one of its members--Collinson, who announced
his resolution thus, in a letter addressed to Gabriel:--“Whit
Monday.--Dear Gabriel, I feel that, as a sincere Catholic, I can
no longer allow myself to be called a P.R.B. in the brotherhood
sense of the term, or to be connected in any way with the magazine.
Perhaps this determination to withdraw myself from the Brotherhood
is altogether a matter of feeling. I am uneasy about it. I love and
reverence God’s faith, and I love His holy Saints; and I cannot bear
any longer the self-accusation that, to gratify a little vanity,
I am helping to dishonour them, and lower their merits, if not
absolutely to bring their sanctity into ridicule. I cannot blame any
one but myself. Whatever may be my thoughts with regard to their
works, I am sure that all the P.R.B.’s have both written and painted
conscientiously; it was for me to have judged beforehand whether
I could conscientiously, as a Catholic, assist in spreading the
artistic opinions of those who are not. I reverence--indeed almost
idolize--what I have seen of the Pre-Raphael painters; [and this]
chiefly because [they fill][233] my heart and mind with that divine
faith which could alone animate them to give up their intellect and
time and labour so as they did, and all for His glory who, they could
never forget, was the Eternal, although he had once humbled Himself
to the form of man, that man might be clothed with and know and love
His divinity. I have been influenced by no one in this matter; and
indeed it is not from any angry or jealous feeling that I wish to be
no longer a P.R.B., and I trust you will ... [something torn off],
but believe me affectionately yours, James Collinson. P.S.--Please do
not attempt to change my mind.”
* * * * *
24th October.--Another long gap in this Journal, even after having
made a beginning with the resumption of it. Let me record no more
intentions or promises, but set to work at its continuation once
more, being as brief as possible regarding the interval.
Deverell has worthily filled up the place left vacant by
Collinson.[234] His work at the National Institution this year[235]
was a strong ground of claim; and this has been confirmed by what
he has since done, and is doing. He hopes to exhibit two pictures
next year: _Rosalind witnessing the Encounter of Jacques and Orlando
in the Forest_, which is pretty nearly finished, and _The Ordering
of Hamlet’s Departure for England_, of which Gabriel has seen an
uncompleted design. Other recent designs of his are _The Converse of
Laertes and Ophelia_, _Claude du Val Dancing with a Lady of Quality
after attacking her Carriage_ (in the possession of Stephens), _James
II. in his Flight Overhauled and his person rifled by Fishermen_
(given to Gabriel), and _The Flight of an Egyptian Ibis_.
Millais left town about the beginning of June, and has continued in
and about Oxford ever since. He had made a design for--and I believe
had begun painting before he left--Tennyson’s _Mariana_; in the
country he has been engaged on his picture from Patmore:
He sometimes, in a sullen tone,
Would offer fruits; and she
Always received his gifts with an air
So unreserved and free
That half-feigned distance soon became
Familiarity.
His brother William Millais is also turning his attention to art; and
produced, when in Jersey during the summer, some excellent and most
promising landscapes, which he will probably exhibit. I heard from
Patmore the other night that Tennyson, on being told that Millais was
doing something from _The Woodman’s Daughter_, observed, “I wish he’d
do something from me.”