Note 9 — Chapter III

This drawing was a remarkable example of the artist being altogether unacquainted with the necessary requirements in making a drawing on wood for the engraver's purposes. In this Rossetti made use of wash, pencil, coloured chalk, and pen and ink, producing a very nice effect, but the engraved reproduction of this many tinted drawing, reduced to the stern realities of black and white by printers' ink, failed to satisfy him. Indeed, Rossetti appears to have made up his mind that it would be a failure, for in writing to his friend Allingham, after explaining the difficulty he had experienced in making the drawing, he says: "As to the engraving, I suppose it is hardly possible that I can be satisfied."

It is further interesting to note in Mr. Malcolm Bell's work of "Sir E. Burne-Jones: A Record and Review," that on seeing the engraving, "Elfin-Mere," it revealed to him for the first time the "World of radiant, many-coloured lights; of dim, mysterious shadows, of harmonies of form of line; that far-off World of Art into which he has made his way and brought back visions of delight to show his fellow man."