The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti 6: The Last Decade, 1873-1882: Kelmscott to Birchington I. 1873-1874

by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Roger C. Lewis, Jane Cowan

Rossetti's return to Kelmscott in September 1872, following his breakdown and recovery charted in volume 5, commenced a period of artistic activity which was at its most energetic in the years 1873-1874. Because of the isolation of Kelmscott, he engaged C.A. Howell as his agent, and trusted him to find new buyers and assist in negotiations with his principal patrons. A complex character who - whirled us...in a tornado of lies-, he could nevertheless sell pictures, negotiate with mercurial buyers and tolerate Rossetti's peremptory ways. We are fortunate, too, in having Rossetti's letters to the demanding patron Frederick Leyland. The letters demonstrate that in Leyland, Rossetti more than met his match, but neither the friendship nor the patronage foundered. Previously valued friends exhausted his patience: Swinburne, for example, is -the crowning nuisance of the whole world.- At the same time, he unreservedly acknowledged debts and obligations, in particular to F.M. Brown and his brother William (to both of whom he owed -more in life- than to anyone else); and friends in need could always count on his generosity. When James Hannay's death left his family in uncertain circumstances, Rossetti acted immediately: -I have no family of my own to provide for, & am therefore doubly bound to do what I can for an old friend's children.-

688 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2006

About the author

British poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, brother of Christina Georgina Rossetti, founded the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, a society, in England in 1848 to advance the style and spirit of Italian painting before Raphael (Raffaelo Sanzio); his known portraits and his vividly detailed, mystic poems, include "The Blessed Damozel" (1850).

This illustrator and translator with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais later mainly inspired and influenced a second generation of artists and writers, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the Symbolists, a group of chiefly French writers and artists, who of the late 1800s rejected realism and used symbols to evoke ideas and emotions. He served as a major precursor of Aestheticism, an artistic and intellectual movement or the doctrine, originating in Britain in the late 19th century, that from beauty, the basic principle, derives all other, especially moral, principles.