THE PRE-RAPHAELITE ARTISTS 321

permit me to suggest en passant, as he is already half a frog, is rather too small for his age). But I happen to have a special acquaintance with the water plant, Alisma Plantago,¹ among which the said gold fish are swimming; and as I never saw it so thoroughly or so well drawn, I must take leave to remonstrate with you, when you say sweepingly that these men “sacrifice truth as well as feeling to eccentricity.” For as a mere botanical study of the water lily and Alisma, as well as of the common lily and several other garden flowers, this picture would be invaluable to me, and I heartily wish it were mine.

But, before entering into such particulars, let me correct an impression which your article is likely to induce in most minds, and which is altogether false. These pre-Raphaelites (I cannot compliment them on common sense in choice of a nom de guerre²) do not desire not pretend in any way to imitate antique painting as such. They know very little of ancient paintings who suppose the works of these young artists to resemble them. As far as I can judge of their aim-for, as I said, I do not know the men themselves-the Pre-Raphaelites intend to surrender no advantage

(rescuing?) Sylvia from Proteus” (No. 594); and C. Collins’ “Convent Thoughts” (No. 493), to which were affixed the lines from Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act i. sc. 1)-

“Thrice blessed they, that master so their blood

To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;”

and the verse (Psalm cxliii. 5), “I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of Thy hands.” The last-named artist also had a portrait of Mr. William Bennett (No. 718) in the Exhibition,-not, however, alluded to in this letter. Charles Allston Collins (1828-1873), son of William Collins, R.A., and the younger brother of Wilkie Collins, subsequently turned his attention to literature; see also Academy Notes, 1855, No. 1334, where Ruskin calls attention to a later picture by the artist. “Mariana” is now in the collection of Mr. Farrer; “The Return of the Dove” is in the Oxford University Galleries (bequeathed by Mr. T. Combe); “The Woodman’s Daughter” is in the possession of the present Lady Millais.]

¹ [See Seven Lamps, Vol. VIII. p. 168 and n.]

² [Compare Modern Painters, vol. i., note added in the edition of 1851 (Vol. III. p. 621), where allusion is made to the painters of a society which “unfortunately, or rather unwisely, has given itself the name of ‘Pre-Raphaelite’; unfortunately, because the principles on which its members are working are neither pre-nor post-Raphaelite, but everlasting. They are endeavouring to paint, with the highest possible degree of completion, what they see in nature, without reference to conventional established rules; but by no means to imitate the style of any past epoch.”]

XII. X

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