Lucien Pissarro

“ It depends entirely upon how far the painter is able to reveal the beauty, the harmony of form and colour of either. The symbolistic appanage of the rose will not suffice of itself to make a picture, nor for the lack of these symbols may we condemn the cabbage. ”

“ Beatrice is seen sitting at the balcony against the sunset background, with the light playing round her golden auburn [52] hair, in fashion suggesting an aureole. She is dressed in green with dull purple sleeves. A bright red bird holding in its beak a dim purple poppy, emblem of death, is flying towards her. In the misty distance the figures of Dante and Love are watching her. Rossetti painted in 1872 a replica of that picture, adding to the main subject the meeting of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise, with maidens bearing instruments of music. ”

“ The realism of the Pre-Raphaelites developed an absorption in detail, a “bit by bit” painting that was too often detrimental to the whole. In the best works of the early Italians the unity is, in spite of that attention to detail, admirably maintained—in other words the values are preserved. It was not long, however, before Rossetti quitted the path of the Pre-Raphaelites for a broader one. His paintings are entirely symbolistic, therefore literary. Given the personality of [12] an artist equally gifted as painter and poet, this need not surprise us. ”

“ In the “Merciless Lady,” a water-colour in the style of his earlier romantic manner, a man sits on a bank of turf between two maidens, with a sunlit meadow behind. He seems attracted by the one on his left who is fair and plays a lute, the other, his lady love, holds his hand and with a sad expression tries to win him back [56] to her. “A Fight for a Woman,” the composition of which is of a very early date, and the oil-painting, “Bella e Buona,” but renamed “Il Ramoscello,” were also painted in 1865. ”

“ Rossetti was not long in discovering that Miss Siddal had a strong aptitude for art. With his special gift of influencing others the position of model was soon merged into that of a pupil. Under his guidance Miss Siddal made rapid progress and her water-colours show a fine sense of colour.
The sympathy between artist and pupil ripened into affection. The exact date of their engagement is not known, but it was probably in 1853, certainly not later than 1854, and was at first kept secret at Miss Siddal’s request. ”

“ The Syrian Venus stands against a red sunset sky in which the moon is rising, gazing full face, with large dreamy eyes. On the right and left two angel figures, holding torches, look upwards.
In that year the Grosvenor Gallery was founded and Madox Brown, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones were asked to exhibit. Madox [74] Brown and Rossetti refused, but Burne-Jones accepted. The exhibition of his work there brought him the enormous popularity he enjoyed. ”

“ I About the middle of the nineteenth century Europe woke to the fact that Art, despite its pretention, had lost all touch with tradition and, like a blind man deprived of his staff, stood fumbling for direction. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The artistic and romantic force which had produced the Pre-Raphaelite movement had another important work to do five or six years later, when a fusion of two movements took place: the early Pre-Raphaelites represented by Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, joined the later movement inaugurated by Morris and Burne-Jones. The second of these groups originated at Exeter College, Oxford. It took shape like the first one in a revolt against the Art formulæ of the age. The Oxford group, like the P.R.B., had a magazine to express their views. ”

“ 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 [80] who do not refresh themselves continually by the “communion” with nature. ”

“ Millais and Holman Hunt, whose friendship dated from the Academy Schools, found ground for sympathetic union with Rossetti in their common distaste for contemporary art. They were convinced it was necessary to abandon the conventional style of the day and return to a severe and conscientious study of nature. ”

“ On either side of the bier where she lies, two maidens dressed in green are holding a pall covered with May flowers and the floor is strewed with poppies, emblem of death. On each side of the picture there are winding staircases through which one sees the sunny streets of Florence. Love is dressed in flame colour [67] and birds of the same hue are flying about to suggest that the place is filled with the Spirit of Love.
Proserpine was the next picture Rossetti undertook. ”

“ Morris, Faulkner, Burne-Jones, Madox Brown, Webb, and others as active members.
The idea of the commercial attempt on the artistic lines to reform the art of decoration and furniture-making was, says Mr. Mackail, largely due to Madox Brown, but perhaps more to Rossetti, who, in spite of his artistic qualities, was a very good business man and had the scent of a trained financier for anything likely to pay. The little band of original artists and designers took in hand tapestry, furniture, wall papers, stained-glass, and later on, carpet weaving and dyeing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He proposed to etch for the frontispiece a charming design of which various pen-and-ink versions exist, but being displeased with the plate he destroyed it. In the same year he painted a small portrait of his wife called “Regina Cordium.” The head with ruddy hair hanging loose on the shoulders against a gold background, fills nearly all the canvas and a hand is seen on the left side of the picture holding a pansy. More than one replica of that portrait exists, and several heads from different sitters are called “Regina Cordium.” Another important production of the year is “Cassandra.” ”

“ On the night of the 11th of February 1862 she took an overdose and Rossetti, returning home from lecturing at the Working Men’s College, found her dying. In a terrible state of anxiety, after seeking one doctor after another, he called in Madox Brown for help, but all in vain. The following morning his wife died, after only two years of married life. The grief of Rossetti was overwhelming and the touching scene in which he buried the manuscript of his poems with his beloved wife has been told many a time. ”

“ At Christmas 1855 Burne-Jones came up to London and was introduced to Rossetti, whom he and Morris admired greatly. Rossetti [36] contributed “The Burden of Nineveh,” and a little altered version of “The Blessed Damozel” to the “Oxford and Cambridge Magazine,” the organ of William Morris.
One year later Burne-Jones and Morris settled in London in rooms at 17 Red Lion Square. Both young men were soon completely under Rossetti’s influence, and their studio became a sort of centre for all members of his circle. ”

“ From the oil painting (74 in. by 43 in.) now in the Corporation Art Gallery at Manchester
This picture was painted for Mr. Clarence Fry of the firm Elliot and Fry, in 1877 and was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1883.
The “Bower Meadow” represents two women playing instruments and two dancing figures, for which he made charming crayon studies. All these figures were painted on an old background study of trees and foliage he had painted in 1850, in his Pre-Raphaelite days when he was working with Holman Hunt. ”

“ The fact that it was from Keats (‘The Eve of St. Agnes’) made him extra enthusiastic, for, I think, no painter had ever before painted from that wonderful poet, who then, it may scarcely be credited, was little known.” Rossetti wished so earnestly to become more intimate with Hunt that he agreed to work with him, sharing a studio that the latter had just taken in Cleveland Street, Fitzroy [20] Square. Here he began to paint his first composition, having hitherto done no more than studies, sketches, a number of portraits, some of which reveal excellent work. ”

“ Next comes the “Monna Vanna,” which represents a lady dressed in a magnificent embroidered robe with large sleeves, holding [57] a fan of black and yellow plumes. Her luxuriant hair is falling from each side of her face on to her shoulders, a bunch of roses is seen in a vase on the left top corner of the picture. ”

“ The mother, in dark green and brown garments with a dull red head-dress, is watching with clasped hands the work in front of her. The young girl, a quite unconventional Madonna dressed in grey, pauses with a needle in her hand gazing in front of her at a child angel holding a white lily. Underneath the pot in which the white lily grows are six big books bearing the names of the six cardinal virtues. The figures, as well as the dove which is perched on the trellis, bear halos, their names being inscribed within. Rossetti painted his mother for St. ”

“ Amongst works designed by him for the firm Morris & Co. the following may be mentioned: “Adam and Eve,” two designs for stained-glass, and “St. George and the Dragon,” six designs for stained-glass. One of them representing the princess drawing the fatal lot he painted as a water-colour. “King Rene’s Honeymoon,” a design for one of four panels representing the Arts, was done for a gothic cabinet that Mr. J. P. Seddon [46] ordered from Morris & Co. Rossetti’s design for “Music” shows the king bent over a chamber-organ kissing his bride while she is playing. ”