Rossetti And His Impossible Women

It is said that Rossetti liever learned to draw. The same is said of rnany painters, and the Frencb say it of all Englishmen. It is certaiu that the wantof close study as a young mau hainpered him all his life, and that he was never sure of perspective, distauces, eto. We are not goiiig to quarrel with Rossetti's birds aud butterflies and flowers, because none suoh saug or flew or bloomed anywhere but in parad iae. If he had mastered technical difflcultios with preRaphaelite "sincerity," they would have been as beautiful and less unreal. But in painting flesh and hair and drnpery, in conihi::i;is brilliancy of color like tbat cf HenUing with depth and gradation like that of Leonardo, no English painter ever escelled him. Esoeption is taken to the monotony of Rossetti's worafn, drawn from two or three types. The fault must be shared with almost all paiuters. There is the Raphuelesque type of face, the Correggiesqne, tlio Titianesque, and so on. Winit the objectors mean is probably that they do not like the type. It is so entirely voulu that cïiiicisni would be impertineat, Riid ve can only say, without expressing a judgineut, that to onr eyethe lips, the tbroats, the fingers, of Rossetti's beauües have soruetbing iu them which is uot quite human, but is like the flesh of sirens, houris or laïnise, those magical beings who capture the cassions of men. but not their hearts. -