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 ordered from Morris & Co. Rossetti's design for "Music" shows
the king bent over a chamber-organ kissing his bride while she is
playing. He designed also one of the minor panels "Gardening." There is
a water-colour of the same subject under the title of "Spring." "Amor,
Amans, Amata," were three small figures in ovals, done for the back of
a sofa, which Rossetti had made for himself. He kept it for many years
in his house at Chelsea. "Sir Tristran and la Belle Iseult drinking
the Love potion" was a fine design intended to be one of a series of
stained-glass windows. "King Rene's Honeymoon" was done for a series
of stained-glass windows. "The Annunciation" is a design for a window,
quite different from the early version of the same subject. "Threshing"
is a design for a glazed tile. "The Sermon on the Mount" was done for a
memorial window in Christ Church, Albany Street, erected in 1869 to the
memory of his aunt, Miss Polidori.
In either 1861 or 1862 Rossetti designed two illustrations for his
sister Christina's book of poems "Goblin Market." They were engraved on
wood and appear in Messrs. Macmillan's edition.
In May 1861 Mrs. Rossetti gave birth to a still-born child. Her
recovery was slow, and this trouble did not improve her consumptive
tendencies. She suffered, too, from a very severe form of neuralgia,
for which laudanum was prescribed.
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.
V
After this tragic event Rossetti could no longer live in the rooms
he had occupied at Chatham Place. He looked for some others, living
meanwhile for a few months in a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Then he
took a lease of the house at No. 16 Cheyne Walk, sharing it at first
with Swinburne and Meredith. Mr. Meredith did not stay long and after
awhile Mr. Swinburne also gave up his tenancy, leaving Rossetti sole
occupant of the premises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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