This success was not achieved without raising some jealousy. Mr.
Buchanan, under the pseudonym of "Thomas Maitland" rushed into print
with the damning essay that appeared in the _Contemporary Review_
for October 1871, under the title "The Fleshly School of Poetry."
This attack was repeated by the same writer in a pamphlet. Rossetti
in ill health and suffering from nervous fancies, considered that
there was a conspiracy against him, a view that, had his health been
stronger, he would not perhaps have adopted. The publication of the
article aggravated his insomnia. Dr. Gordon Hake offered him his
house at Roehampton in order to procure a change for the sufferer,
who either by accident or of set purpose had taken the contents of a
phial of laudanum, and lay for two days between life and death. Prompt
treatment, and his strong constitution helped recovery. He was taken
to Scotland where he resumed work on a replica of "Beata Beatrix."
Out-of-door exercise, early hours, and absence of worries, helped a
great deal to bring about his partial recovery. In September 1872 he
left Scotland and went to Kelmscott where he shared a fine Elizabethan
manor house with William Morris.
His work during 1872-1874 consisted mostly in repainting many of his
earlier pictures. He worked again on "Lilith," "Beloved," "Monna
Vanna," and others. In July 1874 he left Kelmscott and came back to
London, never to return to the quiet manor house, which from this time
was in possession of Morris alone.
Besides retouching his earlier work during the time of his stay at
Kelmscott, Rossetti started a number of new canvases, and made a
certain number of studies for use in future work. Among them are: "Rosa
Triplex," three heads from the same sitter, Miss May Morris. This
drawing is one of four or five versions. A portrait in red chalk on
grey-green paper of Mrs. W. J. Stillman, "La Donna de la Fiamma," and
"Silence," probably studies for pictures never painted, the little head
of a lady holding a small branch of rose-leaves called "Rose-leaf."
"Mariana," an oil painting, its title taken from a scene of "Measure
for Measure," and "A Lady with a Fan," being a portrait of Mrs. Schott,
were all prepared about this time. He also started the first studies
for his big picture, "Dante's Dream," among them a study from Mrs.
Morris for the head of the dead Beatrice, a head of Dante, and studies
for the two maidens holding the pall. "Troy Town," after his own
ballad, and "The Death of Lady Macbeth," are two designs for pictures
never painted. "Pandora" was completed in 1871. "Water Willow," a
portrait of Mrs. Morris is specially interesting because the river
landscape behind represents Kelmscott. A coloured chalk study for that
picture exists, the only difference between the portrait and the study
being that the background of the latter represents a river without
the view of Kelmscott. The "Dante's Dream" begun in 1870 was finished
towards the end of 1871.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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