162

DANTE ROSSETTI

from this time one of Rossetti’s most generous
patrons and intimate friends. It was begun at
Mr. Madox Brown’s house, “ The Hermitage,” on
Highgate Hill, but finished at Stobhall, in Scot-
land, whither Mr. Brown and an equally devoted
friend, Dr. John Marshall, had taken the painter
in the hope of restoring his now shattered health
and assuaging the sorrow that had occasioned its
collapse. Rossetti afterwards said of the “ Beata
Beatrix” thatno picture had ever cost him so much to
paint, but that in no other task had he been con-
scious of so perfect a mastery of his instruments.
It should be remembered that of this picture,
and indeed of several of Rossetti’s finest and best-
known works, certain indifferent replicas exist
which have been frequently mistaken for their
originals. The “Beata Beatrix” in the Birming-
ham Art Gallery was only half painted by Rossetti,
and finished by Madox Brown. Again in the case
of “ The Blessed Damozel ” of a much later date,
the more familiar version is the inferior one.
There was also a smaller replica of “ Dante’s
Dream,” shown in London at the Guildhall Loan
Exhibition of 1892. Moreover, it was Rossetti’s
habit to execute most of his pictures inmore than one
medium; thus many of his early pen-and-ink draw-
ings were presently reproduced in water-colour;
the water-colour designs of 1852-1862 were after-
wards transferred to oils; and most of the important