The P.R.B. is in its decadence:—
for Woolner in Australia cooks his chops;
And Hunt is yearning for the land of Cheops;
D. G. Rossetti shuns the vulgar optic;
While William M. Rossetti merely lops
His B.s in English disesteemed as Coptic;
Calm Stephens in the twilight smokes his pipe
But long the dawning of his public day;
And he at last, the champion, great Millais
Attaining academic opulence
Winds up his signature with A.R.A.:—
So rivers merge in the perpetual sea,
So luscious fruit must fall when over ripe,
And so the consummated P.R.B.
Christina Rossetti, The P.R.B. (II)
• Woolner in Australia: sculptor Thomas Woolner moved briefly to Australia to search for gold.
• Hunt … Cheops: painter William Holman Hunt was preparing for a painting trip to Egypt and Palestine.
• shuns the vulgar optic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, stung by negative reviews of his work, was refusing to exhibit pubicly.
• William M. Rossetti: ‘It means that I, as art-critic of The Spectator, abused in that paper my fellows in the Praeraphaelite Brotherhood, and that no one heeded my reviews. This joke was not historically true…’ (WMR’s notes to the Poetical works of Christina Georgina Rossetti)
• Stephens: Frederic George Stephens, an art critic who began as a painter
• Millais: John Everett Millais
• A.R.A: JEM was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Art in 1853
(via pre-raphaelisme)
FantasyBoudicca 