xlvi INTRODUCTION

patrons, and whose means were very narrow. The article in the Times filled Millais with alarm and indignation, and he bethought himself of some move to parry the blow. He was acquainted with Coventry Patmore; he had painted a portrait of the poet’s first wife, and the subject of one of the pictures in the Academy, denounced by the Times-“The Woodman’s Daughter”-had been taken from Patmore’s piece, so entitled, in his volume of Poems (1844). Millais knew that Ruskin was a friend of Patmore, and turned in his anger and vexation to the author of Modern Painters for help. Patmore himself has recounted the tale:-

“The day when the Times made its furious attack on Millais’s picture of Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop, Millais came to me in great agitation and anger, and begged me to ask Ruskin to take the matter up. I went at once to Ruskin, and the next day after there appeared in the Times a letter of great length and amazing quality, considering how short a time Ruskin had to examine the picture and make up his mind about it.”¹

This is the first of the letters here printed (below, pp. 319-323). It was written quickly, as Patmore says, but it was not immediately printed. Letters from Ruskin to Patmore continue the story:-

“DENMARK HILL,

“10th May [1851].

“DEAR PATMORE,-I wrote to the Times yesterday; but the letter is not in it to-day; it went late, and might have been too late; but if it is not in in Monday’s, the letter shall go to the Chronicle, in a somewhat less polite form. My father has written to ask if the Ark picture be unsold, and what is its price. I wish Hunt would also let me know his price for Valentine. I may perhaps be of service to him.”

“Yours ever faithfully,

“J. RUSKIN.

“COVENTRY K. PATMORE, ESQ.”²

Ruskin did not do things by halves. Not content with writing a defence of the picture in the press, he offered to buy one of those by Millais and made inquiries with regard to Hunt’s. These inquiries were apparently made on behalf of Mr. M‘Cracken of Belfast, or with

¹ Memoirs and Correspondence of Coventry Patmore, by Basil Champneys, 1900, i. 85.

² This and the letter on p. xlviii. are reprinted from the Memoirs and Correspondence of Patmore, ii. 288-289.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]