Rossetti, Dante

(1828 -1882)

Information

It was on his doctor’s insistence that the artist and poet Rossetti, suffering from the after-effects of an operation as well as depression, sought recuperation at a secluded farm-house (‘Mr. Sands’) in the hamlet of Hunters Forstal (contemporary spelling, Forestall) near Herne Bay in August 1877. Rossetti’s depression – exacerbated by insomnia as he tried to lessen a chloral dependency – was not helped by the tremulousness of his hand, which convinced him that he was losing the ability to draw. The illness darkened Rossetti’s attitude to his surroundings. Eventually, cheered by the companionship of his mother and sister, and by the visits of devoted friends such as Theodore Watts-Dunton and Ford Madox Brown, he began to respond to the glorious autumn weather and the benefits of regular walks and drives in the country. Christina and his mother cajoled him into attempting their portraits and he was encouraged by the results.
None the less, such recurrent bouts of illness, occurring near the end of his life, continued to affect Rossetti’s confidence in his artistic ability, and he turned more towards the kind of poetry he had produced in his Poems (1870), often expressing his symbolic writing in ballad form, as in 'Ballads and Sonnets' (1881). Rossetti’s letters from Hunter’s Forstal show the gradual change in his health and spirits.
The house in which the Rossettis stayed was later known as Ivy Cottage. It was demolished in the early 1960s, with only an outbuilding now remaining.

Quotations

In August 1877 he wrote to his mother:

… my hand remains wofully unsteady, and I have had a restless bad night … At present the absolute want of occupation is rotting my life away hour by hour. Brown is the sweetest and kindliest of companions, but such a life is almost unbearable.


In two subsequent letters to Brown, he is more optimistic:

I am greatly improved in my legs, but not as yet in my hands, though today for the first time I seem to feel a slight decrease of tremulousness which induces me to write to you. I attribute any possible improvement to my having greatly diminished my wine [chloral] … I have not yet ventured to attempt drawing, so unadaptable is the room, and so much do I fear discouragement from failure. [1 September]
… there has been further improvement in my hands, but I am sorry to say it proves fluctuating, and at times they are about as bad as ever. I have taken to getting sea water brought here for my morning bath, and this I think has proved really beneficial. I wish I had done it from the first. [?12 September]


By 21 September, Rossetti was able to report to his brother, William:

The weather here has been almost uniformly fine, and no doubt I have benefited much by walking and driving daily. I made one attempt at drawing, which was not absolutely discouraging; and, since I have improved since then in steadiness of hand, I fancy I may be able to get on somehow at the easel. I might have tried again here, but the day is cut up with necessary exercise, and moreover the sun, when out, floods the only room I could paint in.


A month later (17 October) he reported to Brown with evident relish:

I am making a drawing of Christina now, which I really think promises to be one of the best things I ever did.