walls are white but there is a blue curtain behind the Virgin’s head and a red embroidery on its frame is standing in the foreground at the foot of the bed. The drapery of the angel is a little stiff and the whole effect rather hard, but notwithstanding this youthful fault the whole work is restrained and full of charm both in drawing and colour.

This picture was exhibited in 1850 at the same Free Exhibition, which was moved this year from Hyde Park Corner to Portland Place.

The Pre-Raphaelites were now attacked by the press still more fiercely than before, but they found a champion in Ruskin who took up their defence in a series of letters to the Times, and in so doing laid down an elaborate statement of principles. Thus it came about that the broad and possibly nebulous ideas of the Brethren became transmuted into hard and fast rules, which the young painters had to accept, partly out of gratitude to their benefactor, partly because they agreed with them. Rossetti painted only three pictures strictly according to the Pre-Raphaelite rules. Curiously enough the best genuine Pre-Raphaelite picture is “Work” by Ford Madox Brown, who not believing in cliques refused to join the group.

Round Rossetti were grouped his brother, William Michael, his sister Christina, with Woolner, Collinson, Deverell, Millais, Hunt, Madox Brown, William Bell Scott, and Coventry Patmore. Of all these Hunt and Millais alone showed no inclination for writing. The group naturally formed a school of literary thought of which “The Germ,” originated by Rossetti to propagate the ideas of the P.R.B., was the outcome.

The cumbrous title “Monthly Thoughts in Literature, Poetry, and Art,” was first intended to be the title of this special publication of the brotherhood, but at a meeting held in Rossetti’s studio, 72 Newman Street, in December 1849, when the first number was just ready for publication it was decided to change the name for the simple title “The Germ.” This was proposed by Mr. Cave Thomas, an intimate friend of the group.

To the first number Rossetti contributed “My Sister’s Sleep,” and a prose romance “Hand and Soul.” Following numbers contained “The Blessed Damozel,” “The Carillon,” “Sea limits” (under the title “From the Cliffs”), and several sonnets. Only the first two numbers of the publication were called “The Germ.” The publication was known as “Art and Poetry” in the third and fourth issues.

“The Germ,” as its short career showed, did not meet with success, but it served to establish Rossetti’s reputation among a small group of artists and admirers. Rossetti’s literary contributions were far more matured than his paintings and it is surprising that they did not attract more attention. “Hand and Soul” is specially valuable as bearing a record of psychological experiences which gives a clear glimpse of Rossetti’s mind.

III

The storm of abuse caused by his two first pictures assisted a natural inclination to give up his first source of religio-mystical inspiration. Gradually the young painter groped his way towards romantic subjects and discovered a rich mine of them in the works of Browning, Dante, Keats, and the “Morte d’Arthur” of Malory. He may be said to have found there the subjects of most of his compositions, and his works inspired by these poets are delightfully full of originality and ingenuity.

He tried first a large canvas from the page’s song in “Pippa Passes” but had to abandon it. The composition of it remains in a little painting called “Hist, said Kate the Queen,” dated 1851. He executed two other pen-and-ink designs from Browning entitled “Taurellos’ first sight of Fortune” and the “Laboratory,” at about the same time. Probably the latter was his first essay in water-colour, it is very different from those for which he is popularly known.

In “Beatrice at the Wedding Feast, denying her salutation to Dante,” a small water-colour of 1849 from the “Vita Nuova,” the central figure is a portrait of Miss Elizabeth Siddal who became acquainted with Rossetti at about this date. She was the daughter of a Sheffield cutler and was working in a milliner’s shop. Walter Deverell discovered her one day, when he was shopping with his mother. He persuaded her to sit for him for his “Viola” and later to Rossetti. Her portrait can be seen in a picture by Holman Hunt and in Millais’ Ophelia. Miss Siddal sat for most of the women in Rossetti’s earliest and finest water-colours.

To 1851 belongs the beautiful little composition called “Borgia,” in which Lucrezia can be seen dressed in an ample white gown brightened all over with coloured ribbons and bows, sitting with a lute in her hands. In the foreground two children are dancing. Leaning over her left shoulder is the Pope Alexander VI., while her brother Cæsar stands on the other side beating time with a knife against a wine-glass on the table.

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.

To the year 1854 belongs the water-colour, “King Arthur’s Tomb,” in which Lancelot and Guenevere are seen bidding farewell over[33]
[34]
[35] the tomb of King Arthur; and to the following year belong the three water-colours, “The Nativity,” “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” and the “Annunciation,” as well as the drawing for a wood-cut, illustrating a poem called “The Maids of Elfen-Mere” by William Allingham.

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