ABSTRACT
Most histories of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood date the beginning of the movement from the moment when Dante Gabriel Rossetti saw William Holman Hunt’s painting of ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ at the Royal Academy in 1848. Through an idealised portrait of Keats’s life and work, which emphasises the virtues of spiritual edification over sensual indulgence, Rossetti’s letters attempt to refashion his own reputation in the wake of the ‘Fleshly School’ scandal. Rossetti and Thomas Hall Caine’s mutual rapture over Keats’s ‘truly beautiful’ verse resonates through their correspondence. Rossetti’s appreciation of Keats’s work is equally determined by a self-serving agenda. On the rare occasions when Rossetti tried to interact visually with Keats, the Romantic poet’s work was easily adapted to the artist’s style. Benson’s comment on Rossetti’s verse is particularly telling in this context: ‘the wind blows cold out of the inner shrine of fear’.
