ROSSETTI (CHRISTINA) Series of eight autograph letters signed ('Christina G. Rossetti'); one fro...

ROSSETTI (CHRISTINA) Series of eight affectionate autograph letters signed ('Christina G. Rossetti'), to Scottish artist Alice Boyd ('My dear Miss Boyd', 'My dear Alice'), the first writing after a six week stay at Penkill, sending a copy of Plato commenting '...lest you should take to reading aloud let me warn you not to experiment on the Phaedeus... certainly only readable to oneself...', and feeling '...suspicious...' of Swinburne's new ballad book, 'Monday morning', [30 July 1866]; the next regretting she and her mother are unable to visit ('...Dear Penkill must remain our 'Yarrow unvisited'...'), 'Thursday 26th' [1876]; thanks for her '...note of loving remembrance...' after the death of Christina's aunt Maria and glad Alice is seeing Gabriel again ('...every dear person gone out of sight brings out the preciousness of those who remain...'), [n.d., but late November 1876]; the next writing of her portrait ('...it ought to kindle my earnest desire to become what I am not...'), of Penkill ('...Ah, Penkill in all its summer sweetness & loveliness – I thought of the Garden of Eden the first time I found myself there...'), and of D.G. Rossetti's The White Ship ('...We had a visit from our Cheyne Walk recluse...we are to see him & his 'Day Dream' in the studio on Wednesday...'), 'Monday' [30 August 1880]; the remaining letters coming after the death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, offering the brass plate of his sundial as a '...trifling remembrance of your dear friend who so truly admired you...', '23 October 1882'; the next '...Your letter is as sweet as yourself... Today we start the dial on its travels...', 'Monday morning' [30 October 1882]; thanking her for a gift and expressing concerns about her late brother's exhibition at Burlington House ('...I could not bear my dear Gabriel's name and fame to pall upon a glutted public...'), 'Monday evening', [dated as postmark 19 December 1882]; the last accepting an invitation despite having '...a gathering in my nose...', 'Saturday 28th', [?February 1885], with two autograph envelopes, 24 pages in all, five letters on mourning paper, dust-staining, marks, creased at folds, 8vo (178 x 112mm.), Albany Street, Torrington Square, [1866-1882]; with an autograph letter signed ('Alice Boyd') thanking them for the sundial as remembrance of '...a much loved friend who is gone... how I wish you could both come & choose the place...', 3 pages, 8vo, Penkill, 26 October 1882; with a later copy of a portrait photograph of Christina Rossetti, 192 x 124mm. Footnotes: 'EVERY DEAR PERSON GONE OUT OF SIGHT BRINGS OUT THE PRECIOUSNESS OF THOSE WHO REMAIN': LETTERS FROM CHRISTINA ROSSETTI TO A SCOTTISH PRE-RAPHAELITE ARTIST. Christina Rossetti's correspondence to artist Alice Boyd (1825-1897) demonstrates the close bond between the Rossetti family and the Lairds of Penkill Castle in Ayrshire. Alice Boyd had studied art at the Government School of Art in Newcastle-upon-Tyne under the Pre-Raphaelite painter, poet and close friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Bell Scott (1811-1890). On a visit to Penkill in 1860, Scott and Alice began a liaison which would last until his death at Penkill in 1890. Not wanting to cause a scandal, however, Scott and his wife Letitia remained married and a friendly ménage à trois was established, clearly accepted by their friends as there is much fond talk of Mrs Scott by Christina Rossetti throughout these letters. Alice became the first female Laird of Penkill in 1865 following her brother's death, and it became a place where many members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Arthur Hughes and William Morris amongst others – found solace and inspiration. The sundial mentioned here, given by Christina to Alice in remembrance of her brother, was sold by Christie's at their Penkill Castle sale, 15 December 1992, lot 325 (illustrated). Our letters are included in Antony H. Harrison, ed., The Letters of Christina Rossetti, 1997, nos. 312, 633A, 695, 860, 1052, 1054, 1068, 1299, the contents of which were known only through transcripts. The whereabouts of the originals has not been ascertained until now. Whilst most of these letters are dated merely by the day of the week, the years can be ascertained from their contents. The first, for example, seemingly dates to 1866, as she mentions Algernon Swinburne's ballad book (his controversial Poems and Ballads) published in that year. Other fixed points include the death of her aunt Maria in November 1876, mentioned in the third letter, and the publication of D.G. Rossetti's The White Ship and his depiction of Jane Morris as The Day Dream which dates the fourth letter to 1880. The only letter dated in full begins a series concerning the gift of D.G. Rossetti's sundial, and later Christina shares her misgivings over a posthumous exhibition of his works at Burlington House, which opened in January 1883. Provenance: Dr Leslie Cowan (1928-2021), authority on Arthur Hughes and the Pre-Raphaelites (see lot 60); thence by descent to the present owner. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing