Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882, Dante Gabriel Rossetti Letters to William Houghton Clabburn, 1863-1865
- Call Number:
- MSS 31
- Creator:
- Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882
- Title(s):
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti Letters to William Houghton Clabburn
- Date:
- 1863-1865
- Extent:
- .42 linear feet
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Abstract:
- The collection comprises 11 letters from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William H. Clabburn written from 1863 to 1865. The last of these is addressed to Clabburn's wife, Hannah Louisa. The letters are accompanied by 8 envelopes addressed to Clabburn by Rossetti. Rossetti’s letters primarily relate to Clabburn’s commission of an oil replica of Rossetti’s Mary Magdalen at the door of Simon the Pharisee. The correspondence records in detail Rossetti’s artistic process pertaining to this work. In his letter on 6 July 1865, Rossetti provides an extensive interpretation of the work.
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
- Biographical/Historical:
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) was an English poet, painter and translator. Born in London, Rossetti hailed from an artistically prodigious family; his Italian father was a Dante scholar while his sister, Christina Rossetti, became a renowned romantic poet and his brother, William Michael, an accomplished writer and critic. Like many members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti received his early artistic training at Sass’s Drawing Academy, London, entering the school probably in 1841. In 1848, alongside William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and others, Rossetti founded the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, a group of English painters, poets and critics. The Pre-Raphaelites sought to reform British art through a return to honest simplicity and the use of luminous colors and literary themes. Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites advocated for “truth to nature” in art, their work reflecting a mimesis of nature, rich detail and influences from Quattrocento Italian art. The Pre-Raphaelites received praise and endorsement from the influential art critic John Ruskin who boldly predicted that the Pre-Raphaelites would “lay in our land the foundations of a school of art nobler than has been seen for three hundred years” (Ruskin letter to The Times, 30 May 1851). Rossetti’s <title>Girlhood of Mary Virgin</title> (1849) was the first work to be exhibited carrying the Brotherhood’s initials. In addition to his drawing and paintings, Rossetti was a prolific writer, publishing many of his own poems and sonnets and producing a number of translations of Italian medieval poetry, including that of Dante Alighieri. The recipient of the letters, William Houghton Clabburn (c.1820-1889), was a Norwich businessman and manufacturer of silk shawls. A close friend and patron of the artist Frederick Sandys, Clabburn came into contact with Rossetti through Sandys’s loose association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. As these letters evidence, Clabburn corresponded with Rossetti in order to commission an oil replica of Rossetti’s Mary Magdalen at the door of Simon the Pharisee (1858). The correspondence suggests that Clabburn and Rossetti’s relationship was primarily one of patron and artist, however the letters show a friendliness between the pair, with Rossetti referencing mutual friends and acquaintances (including Sandys and Valentine Cameron Prinsep), extending to Clabburn invitations to meet and expressing gratitude for Clabburn’s gifts.
- Scope and Content:
- The collection comprises 11 letters from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William H. Clabburn written from 1863 to 1865. The last of these is addressed to Clabburn's wife, Hannah Louisa. The letters are accompanied by 8 envelopes addressed to Clabburn by Rossetti. Rossetti’s letters primarily relate to Clabburn’s commission of an oil replica of Rossetti’s <title>Mary Magdalen at the door of Simon the Pharisee.</title> The correspondence records in detail Rossetti’s artistic process pertaining to this work. In his letter on 6 July 1865, Rossetti provides an extensive interpretation of the work. The <title>Mary Magdalen</title> replica is described in Surtees’s catalogue raisonné, in entry no. 109, R2 (page 65). Surtees notes: “Besides R. I, one, or possibly two, further oil replicas appear to have been begun in the early 1860s. The picture seems to have been commissioned by John Heugh in 1862-3, but was cancelled. It is uncertain whether the head and shoulders of the Magdalene had been painted on the canvas (M. p. 98). Clabburn, a Norwich manufacturer, who recommissioned the picture in 1863, denied that the painting had been begun. By July 1865 the replica was despatched to him but he doubted if it was the work of Rossetti’s hand. In 1872 it was bought off him by Fairfax Murray. …” The letters demonstrate both Rossetti and Clabburn’s influential connections in the contemporary art world. Rossetti refers to his and Clabburn’s mutual acquaintance Frederick Sandys (of whom Clabburn was a close friend) and other prominent artists of the time including Valentine Cameron Prinsep, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Alphonse Legros. Indeed, the correspondence indicates that, on occasion, Rossetti acted on other artists’ behalf. A letter dated 4 December 1864 reveals that Rossetti arranged for the sale of a Legros’s <title>La mort de Saint François</title> to Clabburn, with Rossetti remarking “You [Clabburn] must know I [Rossetti] have generally been his [Legros’s] business secretary”. In other instances, Rossetti proffers his opinion on cultural events and institutions, declaring lectures at the “Academy” (presumably the Royal Academy) to be “much of a muchness” and remarking upon exhibitions of the time (3 May 1865). The letters disclose the more quotidian aspects of Rossetti’s work, detailing price justifications and forms of payment. In one letter, Rossetti describes at length, and in precise measurements, how the scaling up of a piece will affect its price: “If again I were to adopt measurements on a sufficiently increased scale to reach again a convenient proportion for the squaring off, the picture would reach a larger size than I could paint for 200 guineas” (15 June 1863). In another, he provides Clabburn with precise instructions for sending Rossetti payments for <title>Mary Magdalen</title> (1 May 1865). Rossetti and Clabburn’s correspondence provides further insight into Rossetti’s belief in his works’ worth, revealing Rossetti’s confidence regarding the future value of his paintings. In a letter dated 15 June 1863, Rossetti states that he cannot accept Clabburn’s commission for anything less than 200 guineas, on account of Rossetti’s opinion that “the importance of the large work … will greatly increase the value of any duplicate or work from the same design.” The collection evidences the increasing prominence of technologies such as photography and the continued use of lithography in creating, duplicating and disseminating artistic works. For instance, in one letter Rossetti states that Legros has agreed to paint a companion picture to one of his works from a lithograph while in another Rossetti describes his process of creating replicas of pieces by working from photographs of the original (4 December 1864 and 15 June 1863). In some of the letters, sections of the page have been removed. Generally these are sections containing Rossetti’s letterhead crest and monogram, or his salutation. Broadly, the collection reveals a warm and friendly relationship between artist and patron, with Rossetti frequently enquiringly kindly after Clabburn’s wife and making reference to mutual friends. In one letter, Rossetti gives his profuse thanks to Clabburn for his gift to Rossetti of two live peacocks which he describes as “gorgeous beyond expression – real treasures!” (undated letter, likely written before 23 April 1864). The letters are not included in William E. Fredeman's The correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
- Arrangement:
- The letters are arranged chronologically.
- Additional Notes:
- Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. <title>The correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.</title> Edited by William E. Fredeman. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; Rochester, NY : D.S. Brewer, 2002-2009. Surtees, Virginia. <title>The paintings and drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) : a catalogue raisonné.</title> Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1971.
- Genre:
- Correspondence
- Subject Terms:
- ArtCollectors and collectingLegros, Alphonse, 1837-1911. Mort de Saint FrançoisPaintersPainting, BritishPeacocksReproductionRossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882. Mary Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee
- Subject Period:
- 19th century
- Associated Places:
- Great Britain
- Associated People/Groups:
- Clabburn, Hannah Louisa, 1825-approximately 1880Clabburn, William Houghton, 1819 or 1820-1889Legros, Alphonse, 1837-1911Prinsep, Val C. (Val Cameron), 1838-1904Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain)Sandys, Frederick, 1829-1904Whistler, James McNeill, 1834-1903
- Finding Aid Title:
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti Letters to William Houghton Clabburn
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/resources/5858
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/resources/5858?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1