xlviii INTRODUCTION

The Pre-Raphaelites sent their thanks to Ruskin through Patmore, as appears from the following letter, which is undated:-

“DEAR PATMORE,-I am very glad your friends were pleased with the letter. I wrote a continuation of it, which I have not sent, because to people who did not know that there are not ten pictures in the Academy which I would turn my head to look at, it might have read carping; but I wish, entre nous, you would ask Millais whether it would have been quite impossible for him to have got a bit of olive branch out of some of our conservatories, instead of painting one on Speculation, or, at least, ascertained to some approximation what an olive leaf was like; and also whether he has ever in his life seen a bit of old painted glass, near; and what modern stuff it was that he studied from?

“Pray tell Hunt how happy I shall be to be allowed to see his picture.

“Yours ever faithfully,

“J. RUSKIN.”

The “continuation” here referred to was afterwards sent to the Times (May 30), with the edge of the “carping” turned, however, by further praises. This second letter is given below, at pp. 324-327; it will be seen that some of the points mentioned in the letter to Patmore are therein dealt with.

Ruskin’s intervention was a turning-point in the fortunes of the Pre-Raphaelites. It encouraged the painters themselves, confirmed the wavering opinions of patrons and picture-dealers, and caused many of the critics to reconsider their opinions. With Millais, as we have seen, Ruskin speedily formed a friendship; and to Rossetti, with whom also he presently became intimate, he was able to render much assistance. It seems, too, that Ruskin moved his father to cast about for some way of befriending Deverell, another member of the Brotherhood.

Three years later Ruskin again wrote to the Times in praise of Pre-Raphaelite work. In the interval he had lost no opportunity of calling attention to their pictures in other places. Thus, in revising the first volume of Modern Painters for the fifth edition (1851), he alluded to their works as “in finish of drawing and in splendour of colour the best in the Academy;” then came the pamphlet upon Pre-Raphaelitism, next to be noticed; while in The Stones of Venice he introduced frequent references to Millais, Rossetti, and Hunt.¹

¹ The references are Vol. III. pp. 599, 621; Vol. X. p. 219; XI. pp. 36, 109, 198, 205, 217, 220, 229.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]