Chapter XXXVII: Letter V (6)

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.”

Hunt’s _Converted British Family_ is now sold, having met with a 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]....

Tuesday 6th.--... The Editor of _The Spectator_, on whom I called in the afternoon, alluded, but always in a pleasant way, to the difference of tone concerning Millais in my preliminary observations of last week, and the reviews of previous years. I of course stuck up; and whether this is to be the beginning of the end, or whether its end was simultaneous with its beginning, remains to be seen. However, the opening remarks in my notice for this week will probably tend to bring the point to an issue. I claim the certain reversion of supremacy in art for the newcomers, and Brown is reviewed at a triple allowance of space....

Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th.--... On Saturday Hunt, Gabriel, and I, met at Hannay’s; when Hunt informed us (having it from Patmore), that Ruskin had wished to buy Millais’s picture of _The Return of the Dove to the Ark_, which is already sold; and that Patmore has suggested to him to write something about the P.R.B. The result is not known yet; but, were Ruskin to do so, this is the very thing we want--evident as it is from the affair of Millais’s picture (were it from nothing else) that he must be an admirer of the P.R.B. Indeed so desirable would something of the kind be that it had been proposed among ourselves to write to Ruskin requesting him to express his opinion in some public manner....

Sunday 11th.--The picture Hunt is purposing to do for next year is a life-sized one on the passage from one of Moses’ hymns or exhortations where it is said that God found for Jacob honey in the clefts of the rock.[261]

Monday 12th.--Woolner called, having returned to his study to-day after cold and fever. His model for the Wordsworth monument competition was sent in a few days ago according to the regulations; among the other models is one, also with symbolical figures, by Behnes.[262] He explains to me that it was Ruskin’s _father_ who wanted to buy Millais’s picture, but this makes little difference in the state of the case. Ruskin himself has, in conformity with Patmore’s suggestion, written a letter to _The Times_, on the P.R.B., and, if it do not appear there, will send it to _The Chronicle_. This ought to be worth something to us....