Page:Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904).djvu/106

 then became more noted in musical matters, and was a semi-professional vocalist.

43.The Liverpool shipowner, of Prince's Gate, now deceased. He was one of the principal purchasers of Rossetti's pictures. Rossetti stood towards him in an extremely friendly relation. Whistler painted for Leyland the famous "Peacock Room," and then quarrelled with him.

44.The taste of the collector, by which Rossetti was always strongly influenced, asserted itself at an early age.

45.One of the famous "Thames Series" of plates, a series which contains the finest etched plates of modern times. Whistler came to London about 1862, and, on discovering the artistic charms of Chelsea, he also went to reside there.

46.An acknowledged and daring epigrammatist. Whistler's sayings were always a source of unbounded amusement to his friends. "Why bring in Velasquez?" is perhaps the most characteristic of his replies, which was addressed to a gushing lady who had insisted on assuring him that he and Velasquez were the greatest painters of this or any age.

47.Art and miscellaneous writer, 1819-1901. In after times he became an eloquent and stedfast advocate of the Præ-Raphaelites. Rossetti was extremely intimate with and derived much help from him in his professional career.

48.Poet, 1812-1889. In enumerating the various poetic influences to which Rossetti was subject, his brother says: "Lastly came Browning, and for a time, like the serpent-rod of Moses, swallowed up all the rest. This was still at an early age of life; for I think the year 1847 cannot certainly have been passed before my brother