purchaser at £150 in Mr. Combe, of Oxford; to which place it was
sent, on Millais’s recommendation, to be kept in view at Mr. Wyatt
the printseller’s. Necessity makes us acquainted with strange
Art-fellows. Before this, Hunt had--in conjunction with Stephens on
his introduction--been cleaning and restoring a ceiling &c. at the
Trinity House by Rigaud, an old R.A., representing the Junction of
Father Thames and Father Severn, or some such slosh. A guinea a day
for cleaning, and two guineas for restoring, were not however to
be thrown away. Immediately on the opening of the exhibition, Hunt
had set about a picture of the interview of Isabel and Claudio in
prison from _Measure for Measure_, a commission from Mr. Gibbons,
the purchaser of his _Rienzi_. This is now nearly finished, and
he has made a design for the last scene of the _Two Gentlemen of
Verona_--“Ruffian, forbear thy rude uncivil touch.” He left London
about a fortnight back, for Sevenoaks, in the neighbourhood of which,
at Knowle Park, he is now painting the forest-background of this
subject. His other chief designs since the exhibition opened have
been the breaking of the spell, from _The Lady of Shalott_, and one,
not yet finished, of Ruth at meal-time receiving corn from Boaz to
eat. He has also completed his old design from _Isabella_,
“He knew whose gentle hand was at the latch,
Before the door had given her to his eye.”
Hunt talks of going to Jerusalem when he can set about the Ruth, and
painting it on the spot, and Gabriel is to accompany him; a project
which has become a hissing and a reproach between Woolner and myself,
who are infidel concerning it. Stephens is with Hunt, for the purpose
of painting part of the background in his picture of _Griseldis and
the Marquis_, to which he has just returned. Gabriel has a study now
in 74 Newman Street....
Thursday 24th.--A most wet, miserable, dreary day, one uninterrupted
drench. This style of thing began yesterday, the very day Gabriel
left for the purpose of out-of-doors painting, and seems now
regularly set in. A nice damper for a man’s enthusiasm when every
moment must be turned to the uttermost account....
Friday 25th.--A letter came from Gabriel, saying that he and
Hunt were soaked through and through yesterday in painting,
and requesting a further supply of clothes to meet a similar
emergency.... Brown has done a very great quantity of his _Chaucer_
picture since I saw it last....
Saturday 26th.--I had a note from Mr. Cox, of _The Critic_,
purporting to accompany three volumes of poems for me to
review--_Death’s Jest-book_, Cassels’s _Eidolon_, and another.... I
spent the evening at Brown’s.... Woolner and I had to fight fiercely
for Tennyson and Browning, against Thomas, Lowes Dickinson, and
Brown, chiefly, as champions for Byron, Pope, etc....
Sunday 27th.--... In the evening accompanied Woolner to Patmore’s.
Found that Woolner had just had a cast taken of his medallion-head
of Mrs. Patmore.... Patmore, when we arrived, was reading a
translation by Charles Bagot Cayley, with whom I have lately become
acquainted,[236] of some cantos of the _Inferno_, left by me with
Patmore, who promised to see whether _The Palladium_ would be willing
to publish it. He thinks very highly of the translation, and will
write fully to the Editor on the subject. He had also just read
Browning’s _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, and is evidently deeply
impressed with it--more than with any other of the great man’s
works--though he does not exactly know “what to make of it.” He
says that Mrs. Browning published in _Blackwood_, very soon after
the onslaught there on his own book, an imitation (in incident and
termination) of _The Woodman’s Daughter_, calling it _Maud at her
Spinning-wheel_....
Tuesday 29th.--Woolner and I, with Hannay, spent the night at
Bernhard Smith’s.... Hannay ... saw Bon Gaultier[237] lately, and
found him a wild admirer of Gabriel’s sonnet to his _Mary Virgin_
picture, published in the Free Exhibition catalogue; saying that it
is one of the finest sonnets in the language, and having even gone so
far as to distribute copies of it among his friends....
Friday, 1st November.--Brown, I was informed, called last night,
having something particular to say. On seeing him in the evening,
I learn that on Wednesday he met at Dickinson’s Mr. Williams (the
brother-in-law of Wells, author of _Joseph and his Brethren_) who is
desirous of finding a substitute for writing the art-criticisms in
one of the weekly papers--either _The Examiner_ or _The Spectator_.
The remuneration would amount to about £40 or £50 a year. Brown
kindly mentioned me; and I should certainly be glad to do for
something, and with better prospects, what I am now doing for
nothing. The critic, I understand, would not be pledged to any
party, nor under any vexatious control. I wrote to Mr. Williams at
Brown’s suggestion, stating my views, and with the object of calling
on him. Brown’s picture[238] is sold to the Dickinsons--for what sum
I did not ask....
Sunday 3rd.--... Spent the evening at Patmore’s, with whom I left my
notice of Allingham:[239] his in _The Palladium_ is out.... Patmore
does not believe we have any really great men living in the region
of pure intellect; not even Tennyson, though he might have thought
him such, had he not written. He spoke of Gabriel’s poem _Dante
in Exile_, which he considers full of fine things; the stanzas on
Republics he admires particularly. He talks of keeping open house
on every alternate Saturday, and has given me and all the P.R.B. a
general invitation....
Tuesday 5th.--Woolner returned from Sevenoaks. His news is--of
Gabriel, that he gets up at seven o’clock, is painting his background
with mystic feeling, translates canzoni at a great rate of evenings,
and will probably be back at the end of the week;--of Hunt, that
he is progressing well, painting the ground all covered with the
red autumn-leaves;--of Stephens, that he also is getting on. Beyond
this, he says that a letter has been received from Millais urging
the admission of Collins[240] into the P.R.B.; that Hunt acquiesces
in Millais’s suggestion, Stephens in Hunt’s consent, and Gabriel in
that of them two. Woolner himself fought the point savagely; being
of opinion (in which I fully agree with him) that Collins has not
established a claim to the P.R.B.-hood, and that the connexion would
not be likely to promote the intimate friendly relations necessary
between all P.R.B.’s.... A letter reached me from Allingham, who
speaks as being well pleased with my criticism, at some passages
of which I had my suspicions he might be offended. He says he has
corrected many of the imperfect rhymes in his volume; and, alluding
to Gabriel’s commenced picture from _Pippa Passes_, urges that the
Page should not be made too juvenile or helpless. In the evening I
had a letter telling me not to go to Patmore’s to-night; and stating
that the length of Cayley’s _Dante_ proves an insuperable obstacle
to its publication in _The Palladium_, the Editor, being willing,
nevertheless, to insert a canto or two as a specimen. A letter also
from Mr. Williams, to suggest that I should enable him to show
something written by me to the Editor of the paper he is connected
with. I accordingly looked over my _Critic_ critiques (selecting
the most mildly expressed, as the note speaks of “courteous
consideration”); and, with these and a copy of _The Germ_, called
on Mr. Williams. The paper in question is _The Spectator_, whose
Editor is a Mr. Rintoul; and it appears that its tactics are somewhat
hostile to the Academy, in so far at least as the aim of keeping it
up to public responsibility may be so construed. I gather, however,
that considerable latitude is allowed to the writer, and that I
should be but little hampered with any _antécédens_. The business
of the critic extends, beyond the mere notice of exhibitions, to
the general discussion of any matter affecting art, so that, if I
obtain the engagement, I may reckon upon being pretty constantly
occupied. I find Mr. Williams not of very P.R.B. tendencies, and
no great admirer of Anthony,--my review of whom at Suffolk Street
I had brought with me, fancying it would be appropriate. It seems
that a new Associate has been elected, which will furnish present
matter for an article. Mr. Williams spoke a good deal of Wells,
author of the _Stories after Nature_, who appears to be a most
dangerous and insidious person.[241] His whole aim, it appears, is
to exercise influence over others; a craving which occupies him to
a most morbid degree, and which he gratifies regardless of means and
consequences. On one occasion he played upon Thomas Keats, by keeping
up a correspondence with him in the character of a lady, and induced
him to go to France in the idea of meeting his correspondent. The
discovery of the fraud produced, it seems, a very serious effect on
its victim. John Keats became very indignant hereat, and peremptorily
broke off all acquaintanceship with Wells; and Mr. Williams is of
opinion that Wells’s literary works (written subsequently to this
affair) were produced in the hope of pleasing Keats and winning him
back. No friendships are safe within the sphere of Wells’s influence,
his principle being “divide et impera.”... He is now lord and master
in the household of some French lady, whose son, after being given
over by the doctors, is supposed to have owed his recovery to Wells’s
devout prayers....
Wednesday 6th.--I find announced in _The Times_ the election of
Eastlake as President, and of Hook as Associate. Here is ready-made
to my hand a subject for a _Spectator_ article, should such be in
demand. In the evening, another letter from Mr. Williams, to say
that, having himself been asked to write on the point, he mentioned
his interview with me to the Editor, Mr. Rintoul, and proposed
that I should do it as a specimen. The feeling in which it seems
the Editor would wish to speak (disclaiming at the same time the
slightest desire of biasing me) is entirely my own. Mr. Williams
called to get my answer, which was of course affirmative. On his
departure I set about the article, and got through it. It had to be
ready by to-morrow evening. The _Critic_ notices have been left with
Mr. Rintoul.
Thursday 7th.--Having looked in on Mr. Williams, who says he has told
Mr. Rintoul I might probably call to-day at the _Spectator_ office,
I went thither with my article after dinner. The Editor however was
out; so that, being afterwards at the theatre to see Miss Faucit, I
made up a note with the slovenly means at my disposal, and dropped it
into the editorial box, coming home at night....
Friday 8th.--A note came from Mr. Rintoul expressing himself much
pleased with my paper, of which he sends me the proof. One or two
slight verbal differences seem, possibly, intentional, but there is
no alteration of the least importance. He asks me to call on Monday
and I answered proposing to do so in the evening. I presume I may now
consider myself engaged....
Sunday 10th.--I sat to Brown for the head of a figure in his
picture--that of a minstrel or poet who looks round at Chaucer
with a sort of jealous admiration. He would like me to notice in
_The Spectator_ the sale of this work to the Dickinsons, and thinks
it might be well to write an article on the relations of painters
and picture-dealers--a suggestion I propose to adopt.[242] He tells
me that, at the election of Hook as Associate, the only competitor
brought to the ballot was Harding,[243] who obtained seven votes out
of sixteen....
Wednesday 13th.--Gabriel wrote again that after all he might probably
return to-day, and did in fact arrive in the course of the morning.
His picture remains for the present at the Inn where the coach stops.
Hunt expects to be back to-morrow, and Stephens returned on Sunday.
Gabriel brings with him a great quantity of translations from the old
Italian, and one or two short original poems; he has also written a
stanza or two to a poem he had begun shortly before leaving London
suggested by some of the Nineveh sculpture[244].... I called on
the Editor of _The Spectator_, who appears to be a frank, cordial,
and agreeable man, without any pretension to knowledge in art....
He observed that it would not be in the least necessary to get up
something about art for every week; and indeed, I think, seemed
rather impressed with the notion that I should present him with more
than is wanted.
Saturday 30th.--... Millais met Frank Stone the other evening, who
spoke to him about young men, ignorant of the first principles of
art, imagining they are going to do something new, and found a
school; and said he supposed Millais and his friends considered _him_
altogether wrong in his productions--to which Millais returned a
decided affirmative. An absurd lithograph-caricature is about to be
issued of Millais’s last picture, as he is informed by his Brother;
something of a big dog sniffing at a cur, with the picture in the
background, and some motto to the effect that some one or other
fancies he’s like nature, but isn’t.... There was a very laudatory
notice ... in _The Guardian_, he says, of his and Hunt’s last
pictures; and some persons in Oxford informed him that Ruskin writes
in the paper, and that the article may not improbably be his[245]....
Woolner, who passed the evening with Gabriel, was yesterday with
Patmore, accompanying Tennyson in the search for a house in the
neighbourhood of London, but without result. Tennyson is in a state
of disgust at the idea of being presented at court on his appointment
to the laureateship. Patmore says that Tennyson has in his memory,
and on occasion recites, an immense quantity of poetry which he never
intends to commit to paper.... Gabriel finished, all but the last
verse, his parody on _Ulalume_.[246]
Sunday, 1st December.--Gabriel completed the repainting of the
angel’s head in his _Ecce Ancilla Domini_. His translation of the
_Vita Nuova_ has been returned by Tennyson, who says it is very
strong and earnest, but disfigured by the so-called cockney rhymes,
as of “calm” and “arm.” Gabriel intends to remove these before any
step is taken towards publication.
Monday 2nd.--Stephens, whom I had not seen for some months,
called.... We discussed the shamefully obsolete condition into
which P.R.B. meetings have fallen.... I spent the evening with
Hunt, who has painted some more of the foreground of his _Two
Gentlemen_ picture--fungi and dead leaves. He goes to Lambeth Palace
of mornings, to do the cell in his other work, the _Claudio and
Isabella_. While I was there he fulfilled the pleasant duty of making
out an account against the Trinity House for work done on the Rigauds
thereof in September, to the value of (between him and Stephens) £54
odd. We talked a good deal of the chance of establishing a P.R.B.
household, where three or four could live, and paint in common. It
might probably be to be done, if Millais would join; and he seems
very anxious to live out of London....
Tuesday 3rd.--Gabriel did something on his design, _Music, with
a Dance of Children_.[247] He talks of sending his ballad _Denys
Shand_[248] to _Tait’s Magazine_, having found a good poem of the
same class in last Number. I read through almost all the new matter
in Mrs. Browning’s volumes, included in which is a poem I suppose to
be that which Patmore says she borrowed without acknowledgment from
his _Woodman’s Daughter_. The resemblance, however, is merely in
the moral; the treatment being utterly, and the details of incident
considerably, different; nor is the title here printed _Maud at her
Spinning-wheel_....
Thursday 5th.--Gabriel painted on the head of the Virgin in his last
picture.
Friday 6th.--Gabriel painted a left hand to his angel Gabriel,
thinking it objectionable that one hand only should be visible of
each figure.
Saturday 7th.--Woolner, having written at Gabriel’s request to
know the price of the rooms in Red Lion Square lately occupied by
Harris, called with a note from North Senior[249] the landlord,
saying that he will “submit” to £4. 4s. monthly or 20s. a week.
He stipulates however that the models are to be kept under some
gentlemanly restraint, “as some artists sacrifice the dignity of art
to the baseness of passion.” This seems a very advantageous prospect
for Gabriel and Deverell, on whom we called to acquaint him. Little
seems to have been done to his pictures: to the _Hamlet_ scarcely
anything.... We called at Millais’s, having engaged to see his
picture and design, but found we had over-stayed our time. However, I
met him almost immediately, parading Tottenham Court Road, together
with Hunt and Collins, on the search for models....
Sunday 8th.--Woolner called, bringing his head of Tennyson, cast
in bronze very satisfactorily. He prides himself not a little on
Bernhard Smith’s approval of the execution, and on having rubbed
some washing “blue” into the flat of the medallion, to improve its
colour. His head of Mrs. Patmore is also to be cast by Mrs. Orme’s
desire.[250]...
Tuesday 10th.--Gabriel saw Millais’s design and picture,[251] and
pronounces the former to be immeasurably the best thing he has
done. The landscape of the picture too is superior to that of the
_Ferdinand and Ariel_. I spent the evening with Hunt, being the only
one, of two or three engaged, that did so. Some little has been done
to his _Two Gentlemen_ picture.... Coming home, I found Millais
with Gabriel, who had read several of his translations from the old
Italian, which had just been saved from consumption in lighting
fires. Much serious speech ensued.... Gabriel began drawing this
evening from the model at Seddon’s....
* * * * *
1851.--January.--A lapse of upwards of a month during which I have
neglected the P.R.B. Journal, an omission partly attributable to
the nuisance and confusion of moving.[252] However, there has not
occurred much requiring record.
Monday last, January 13th, was fixed for a P.R.B. meeting at Hunt’s,
with a view to discussing fully the subject of electing any new
members in addition to the six remaining of the original number,
and in order to frame definite rules for the Brotherhood. Millais,
Stephens, and myself, only attended; Gabriel being indisposed, and
Woolner in the country.... Rules were also adopted for holding a
P.R.B. meeting on the first Friday in every month; for fines in case
of default; for a general review of each P.R.B.’s conduct in art
at the close of the year; and making the keeping of this journal
obligatory on me as secretary. Various other points stand over for
settlement.
Millais having raised a doubt as to the propriety of our continuing
to call ourselves P.R.B.’s, considering the misapprehension which
the name excites, it was determined that each of us should write a
manifesto declaring the sense in which he accepts the name; to be
read all together at our next meeting, which is fixed for Millais’s,
in accordance with the new rule. I have written down my declaration
in its chief points.[253]
Another matter of interest has arisen, of which a hint was given some
while ago. One Earl has produced an engraving of a china dog being
sniffed at by a real dog, with Millais’s picture in the background.
It is entitled _Nature and Art, dedicated without permission to the
Præraphaelites_, and is on the eve of publication, by Fores, of
Piccadilly. Millais called there the other day, incog.... He has
determined to ascertain the law of the case, and to inquire Farrer’s
opinion as owner of the picture.
Stephens has taken up the art-criticism for _The Critic_, which I had
declined because of my connection with _The Spectator_.... Gabriel
has, with Deverell, taken the first floor of North’s house, 17 Red
Lion Square....
Sunday 26th.--On resuming the P.R.B. Journal I find that my
present isolated position renders the continuance of it day by day
inefficient to any good purpose. I shall therefore write it up
weekly, except where anything particular may call for special record
of some one day....
Sunday, 2nd February.--Woolner returned on Thursday, after about
six weeks’ absence.... There is some prospect of his getting the
commission for a monument to Wordsworth[254] to be erected over his
grave; Mr. Fletcher, whom he met when with Tennyson at the Lakes,
having proposed him to a brother of Sir Humphrey Davy, who manages
the affair, and some preliminary notes having been exchanged.... He,
with Gabriel and myself, spent the evening with Patmore on Saturday.
Gabriel left some more of his translations from the Italians before
Dante, which Patmore says are the only true love-poems he ever saw.
Sunday 9th.--Friday was the second P.R.B. meeting under the new
system, when we assembled at Millais’s: all were present, an event
which has not happened for months. A few further regulations were
made--involving, at Hunt’s suggestion, the important principle
that any possible new member is to be re-eligible annually--not
permanently admitted in the first instance. An unanimous vote against
any P.R.B. (in the case of one of the original six, the vote of his
fellow foundation-members only) is to amount to expulsion; a case not
precisely foreseen at present. Election is to be by ballot. We voted
moreover to keep, under the same obligation as a P.R.B. meeting, the
birthday of Shakespeare; and that any one contemplating a public
course of action affecting the Brotherhood shall mention the matter
first to his colleagues. Millais’s new design is of the dove’s return
to the ark. He has finished a small study from Miss McDowall[255]
illustrating the love-custom of passing cake through a ring.[256]...
Sunday, 2nd March.--To-day I sat to Deverell for the hand of his
Hamlet, and with him and Gabriel spent the evening with Hunt. We
found there a cousin of Hannay’s[257] who had been sitting for the
head of Valentine. This week has been signalized by Woolner’s taking
a medallion of Carlyle, who gave him sittings the four first days
of the week, and who of course furnishes material for any number of
“nights’ entertainments.”...
Sunday 9th.--... To-day I called on Woolner, and saw his head of
Carlyle, and a first sketch for the Wordsworth monument competition.
Wordsworth is seated, the whole arrangement of the figure being
subordinated to the supremacy of the head; on the base of the plinth
whereon he sits is a bas-relief of _Peter Bell_. Two side-plinths
are left entirely plain, as expressive of the ideal in contrast
with the human. Mounted on these are two symbolic groups; the first
of Control--a refractory child restrained by the authority of his
father; the second of Aspiration--a girl who, showing to her mother a
flower which she has gathered, is taught to raise her thoughts to the
stars. The manhood (rather than womanhood) of the controlling figure
in the first symbol is the suggestion of Carlyle, who expressed his
entire approval of the general conception of the monument. There
are several excellent names on the Committee for carrying out the
subscription and awarding the commission--such as ought to give
Woolner a fair chance of success; and the terms of the prospectus
promise a certain elevation of principle in the selection....
Friday, 2nd May.--After another discreditable lapse, I take occasion
to renew the P.R.B. Journal--this being the private-view day at the
Academy, to which I had a ticket through _The Spectator_. The P.R.B.
pictures here are Millais’s from _The Woodman’s Daughter_, _The
Return of the Dove to the Ark_, and _Mariana_,--and Hunt’s _Valentine
rescuing Sylvia from Proteus_. Millais’s two first are on the
line--_The Woodman’s Daughter_ in the old architectural room, from
which the architecture has been this year transferred to the Octagon
Room; the two others in the West Room--the _Mariana_ being partly
below the line. Hunt’s has been abominably shirked off into much the
same position as his _Rienzi_ of 1849 occupied. Collins exhibited two
pictures--a portrait, and _Convent Thoughts_--very charming indeed;
a strong claim to P.R.Bhood, which it appears however he is now in
no hurry to apply for, thinking it should have been offered long
ago. Brown’s _Chaucer_ is here, and attracts much admiration; the
other best pictures being Eastlake’s, Dyce’s, Leslie’s, Mulready’s
(an old one), and Poole’s.... In my progress I heard some one--by
his looks, an Academician--observe, in reference to one of Millais’s
pictures, that no sarcasm could be too fierce for such absurdities;
and another, a Frenchman-cropped monkey-looking being,[258] was in
ecstacies of amusement which he made it his care to communicate.
The _Mariana_ appeared nevertheless to be a great favourite with
women, one of whom said it was the best thing in the exhibition....
The rest of the evening was spent here (the time happening to have
come round) in assembled P.R.B.: Woolner excused himself through
indisposition.... Millais had heard from Mrs. Collins[259] something
about abuse encountered by his pictures; which, it seems, are
denounced by Mrs. Jones, and make Jones, R.A., walk about in a state
of despondency and distress[260]....