The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-04-13

| lnTOugn all the history OF the art
Of painting there is = thread of repet.
ton IN recalling the force of classical
treatment and in emphasizing the
necessity of understanding Nature
and closely following her teaching.
But while the English school has
made no general reeponee to the clsssi-
cal attraction, the nineteenth century
has brought q fuller development of
the feeling for Nature which hadlbeen
80 beautifully expressed by the water
color movement. The earlier impetus
made men aware of the beauty and
the power OF English ground. The
later teaching, while it had the same
National spirit, was the exponent Of
more general revival.
In Germany, in the beginning Of
the century, Cornelius and Over beck
had gone back TO the pre.Rs phaelites
for inspiration and direction during
q time Of great intellectual activity.
And now an Eng lish brotherhood de-
voted themselves to similar ideas,
while the materialism of the eigh-
teenth, century was giving place to
the higher life az revealed by Shelley
and Keats, Coleridge and Words
worth. The German brethren were
more religious than the English
associates in the denominational
sense, but the Eoglishmen were more
deeply imbued with universal spirit.
Their work was the out-growth OF
what Theodore Watts calls the
Renaissance OF Wonder, and what
Ruskin defines as "nobe romantic
the habit of regarding the external
and real world as singer of Ro-
maunts would have regarded it in the
middle ages, and as Scott, Burns,
Bryan and Tennyson have regarded
1t i'm our own times"
The leader ofthis brotherhood, who
in the beginning We're greeted by the
most opprObrious criticism, was
Dante Gabriel Rossetti whose power
of poetic conception and attractive
! personality have made him char
acter of the rarest influence and most
fascinating interest. He associated
with him Holman Hunt and John
Millais, late president of the Royal
Academy, Thomas Woolner, painter
and sculptor, James Cullison and +.
q. Stevens, painters, and William
Rossetti, critic and poet" Ford
MADDOX Brown, Morris, Swiuburne
and Burne-Jones were also connected
with the movement, though not SUB.
scribing wholly to it's principles. The
original seven "espoused Nature ~
st. Francis espoused poverty" and in
lS49 Hunt exhibited his "Rienza,"
Millals, Lorenzo and Isabella" and
Rosetti, The Girlhood of Mary
Virgin" which showed in marked
degree the innovations in conception
and technique which they proposed
to follow.
Their connection with literature
came little later in the establish
ment OF The Germ, a magazine for the
dissemination of the new ideas. Only
few numbers were printed, and
these contained some of the wonder
ful early ballads and sonnets by
which Rosetti proved his right to
the place he now occupies in English
| poetry. He was at tins time about
% years of age and his soul was
stepped in the color which glowed up
on his canVass-the fadeless hues
that never shone on sea or land. -
and his lie up to this time, as it was
through all his time, was singularly
uneventiu.
His father was an Italian patriot
VINO maintained himself in English
exile by his fine scholarship. His
mother was half Italian and half
English and from early childhood
his artistic instinct was 20 pronounce
ed that his schooling was abbreviated
for the sake of artistic study, but in
all his life he had no influence of
foreign travel except an early tour to
Belgium where he was much inn
pressed by the Van Eycks and Mem
ling. At 80 he was married after q
long engagement to a Mise Siddell,
who was as beautiful as. some OF his
own dreams, and whom he loved
with surprising devotion. The
wife died only two years later, and
he never recovered from the loss, He
lived on quietly in the London home
among the beautiful things he had
gathered about him, and died in 1882
true sto the last to his individual
aspirations and the "saving grace of
conscience in art"
The brotherhood had fallen apart
| !, L.,