Mr. ___ and M iss ___ nervously perpetuating the touch of a vanished hand.
Max Beerbohm
1922
Rossetti and His Circle, Plate 19
6 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches
The phrase "touch of a vanished hand" — itself virtually a Victorian icon — comes from the climactic section 95 of Tennyson's In Memoriam, where the poet's mystic experience provides the culmination of the hand imagery that runs through the poem. Here Beerbohm wryly applies it to the sordid matter of forgeries of Dante Rossetti's drawings by the adventurer, Charles Augustus Howell and Howell's artist-friend, Rosa Corder [GPL].
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. ]
References
Beerbohm, Max. Rossetti and His Circle. London: William Heinemann, 1922.
Last modified 4 July 2007