Dante Gabriel Rossetti by W. & D. Downey
We will never truly know what caused Gabriel’s mental
destruction and physical deterioration. Was it a culmination of life
experiences, i.e. the death of his wife, Lizzie Siddal, and Jane Morris leaving
him ending their love affair? It is with sadness that I look upon the last ten
years of his life wondering what happened?
Was he self-medicating to kill his grief and pain over lost loves? He
was still painting and writing poetry, shedding light on his mental capacity to
harness his creativity. His friends
observed his changing behavior and mannerisms not knowing what to do or how to
help their friend. The word ‘madness’ was tossed about, physical incoherency
and bouts of paranoia abound. Ex lover, Jane Morris observed, ‘when
I found that he was ruining himself with chloral and that I could do nothing to
prevent it I left off going to him on account of the children.’ Even though, Jane Morris would remain friends
with Gabriel, he needed to always have women around him whether as a muse or to
quell his loneliness and insecurities. Enter back in the frame, a woman who
never truly left in spirit, Fanny Cornforth.
We do know that Gabriel tried to fight his dependency on
chloral hydrate with treatments consisting of night walking and hypnosis.
Nothing helped. He started to believe there were people plotting against
him. One surviving story describes Doctor John Marshall removing his testicles
making him bed ridden for two months and convalescing at a seaside resort in
Herne Bay. His mother and sister Christina stayed for twelve weeks in support. The
sad thing is Gabriel’s Pre-Raphaelite circle of artist friends remained in his
life even after his numerous attempts to push them away and isolate himself; a
direct result of the drugs. He surrounded himself with his close friend
Frederick Shield and G.F. Watts, Fanny Cornforth and his own family members.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
Fanny Cornforth and William Michael Rossetti (1863)
By 1879, Gabriel’s melancholy and drug dependency worsened
and caused an overdose in October causing Fanny Cornforth to withdraw from him
becoming involved with John Scott a recent widower. Thomas Hall Caine described
Gabriel’s appearance, ‘corpulent body, full round face deathly pale, large
black eyes, massive forehead, thinning hair and grey streaked beard with a weak
and shaky gait’. He was only fifty-one years old but appeared much older. As if
this were not enough, artistically, the demand for Rossetti’s paintings fell as
his income dwindled.
By the summer of 1881, Fanny Cornforth appeared back in
Gabriel’s life, still addicted to chloral and he spent the night train’s
journey to London discussing his remorse over Lizzie’s death and the opening of
her grave. Even with a new publication of his poems and a sale of his largest
painting to public collection, his brother observed, ‘no scintilla of pleasure
or cheerfulness seemed to come from this double achievement; the curtains were
drawn round his innermost self and the dusk was fast darkening into night.’
Instead of being treated with chloral he was now taking morphine resulting in
opium dreams. William Bell Scott recorded a visit to Rossetti where he, ‘found
him half dressed, twisted up on the sofa and attended by Fanny, emaciated and
worn out. This is evidently the result of anxiety and deranged sensibility
about the exhibition of his picture at Liverpool and his volume coming out at
the same moment.’ Medically, today Dante Gabriel Rossetti would be diagnosed with
renal failure, the malfunctioning of his kidneys slowly poisoning him.
W. B. Scott, John Ruskin, and D. G. Rossetti by William A. Downey
June 29, 1863, Albumen Print, NPG
Around February 1882, John Seddon, architect friend of
Gabriel’s offered him a bungalow at Birchington on the Kent coast and along
with Hall Caine, his mother, his brother William Michael, his nurse, and his
sister Christina, he arrived.
The Rossetti familyby Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
albumen print, 7 October 186, NPG
The Rossetti Bungalow where Dante Gabriel Rossetti passed away, 1910 photograph
Birchington-On-Sea, Kent, England
Diary entry 10 April, 1882, by his brother William Michael
Rossetti from the bungalow, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England, the day after
his brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti passed away,
“Went in to Gabriel soon afterwards, and sat with him a considerable
while the nurse Mrs. Abrey in and out of the room. His complexion was much more
natural and less livid then the previous day, but the lips not a good colour;
less wheezing than on Friday, and not more than on Saturday; eyes somewhat
clearer. He talked but little at any time of the day. Did not seem extremely
melancholy, but languid, and not roused to any serious effort of attention;
utterance indistinct (same on two previous days). He said twice during the day
to me, “I believe I shall die to-night,’ in a calm voice, not emotional. Also
said, ‘Yesterday I wished to die, but to-day I must confess that I do not.’ I
replied that he ought not to wish to die, but rather to continue working with
energy, and producing fine things. Every now and then he would sit up and
forward on the bed, and sometimes nurse rubbed his back with a circling motion
of the hand. I was in and out of the room various times, with Leyland once or
twice. Went up on the roof with Caine, to remedy the flapping of a tarpaulin which
lay along there, being part of an awning which Martin had on previous day
erected outside Gabriel’s window. I asked more than once to read to Gabriel
(intending to propose Ecclesiastes), but he did not wish it; said, ‘Perhaps
later.’ Towards 5 I assisted nurse to put on his loins a large linseed and mustard
poultice, and his drawers were put on at same time both processes much against
his will, as he disliked and dreaded the heat in bed. He often demanded to have
both off; but this was wrong, and could not be granted. Nurse and I both
reasoned with and coaxed him on the subject. I was called to dinner towards 7;
and, lingering afterwards in talk with friends, did not re-enter Gabriel’s room
till (say) 10 minutes to 9 my mother, Watts, and nurse, then with him. The
poultice had by that time been renewed, but I was not aware of the fact. He was drowsy, and not taking any particular
part in what was going on. My mother having said that she was to leave the room
at 10, and Christina to succeed her through the night, I said I would come at
10, and stay till 2, and then Christina could succeed me; and meanwhile I would
lie down till 10. Entered drawing room just about 9, lay down on sofa, and
pretty soon dozed. Was roused towards 9.20 by Shields rushing into the room,
and loudly summoning me to come at once to Gabriel. Found him with head leaning
over towards right, eyes starting but nearly closed, mouth open and twitching.
He drew hard breaths at intervals. Shields ran for Dr. Harris, who came in
towards 9:30. On entering he replied to our enquiries that Gabriel was still
alive. He then proceeded to use the stethoscope, but it did not give the
indication of breathing, and Harris pronounced Gabriel dead. Gabriel had, just
before Shields entered the drawing-room for me, given two violent cries, and
had a convulsive fit, very sharp and distorting the face, followed by collapse.
All this passed without my personal cognizance. He died 9.31 p.m.; the others
Watts, mother, Christina, and nurse, in room; Caine and Shields in and out;
Watts at Gabriel’s right side, partly supporting him.” -- William Michael Rossetti continues, “To
these details painful to write, to remember, and to transcribe I am only
disposed to add that on the evening of Good Friday my brother had, under the
guidance of Mr. Watts, made his will, and I fancy he had never done the like
before. He left all his property in equal shared between Christina and myself.
Christina, being at once apprised of this, absolutely refused to have her name,
rather than that of our mother, in the will. As to any money details arising
out of the will, I limit myself to saying that, after paying off my brother’s
debts and after the sales of his household and decorative effects and of his
remaining works of art, there was a substantial sum divisible between the
legatees. Two exhibitions of his paintings and designs, covering the whole of
his career, were held, but not under the control of the family; one being at
the Royal Academy’s winter exhibition of 1883, and the other at the Burlington
Fine Arts Club in the same year; there was a third, a private speculation,
called the Rossetti Gallery, in Bond Street.” Dante Gabriel Rossetti His Family Letters
with a Memoir By William Michael Rossetti, Volume 1, London, Ellis and Elvey, 1895
