Rossetti and St. Cecilia’s Kiss

Compare the Rossetti image in the proof above, with the photograph of the original drawing which can be seen in Some Poems by Alfred Tennyson with a preface by Joseph Pennell and an Introduction by William Holman Hunt. London, Fremantle. 1901. p42.

What are the differences between the two images? What effects do the changes have on response to the image?

The Pennell Book (1901)

The full title is ‘Some Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson with illustrations by W Holman Hunt, J E Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti printed from the original wood blocks cut for the MDCCCLXVI edition with photogravures from some of the original drawings now first reproduced, with a preface by Joseph Pennell treating of the illustrators of the sixties and an introduction by W Holman Hunt.

In the list of photogravures in the contents, the publishers add a note to D G Rossetti’s Drawings ‘The publishers wish to state that the only Photographs of the Original Drawings obtainable were those taken by an amateur-neighbour of the Artist-and are presented with all their consequent defects. It is thought however, that, imperfect as they are, they still have a value to the Artist and the Connoisseur, to whom principally the book is intended to appeal.