Dante Gabriel Rossetti letter to Ellen Heaton, 1863 May 22

Rossetti tells Heaton he can offer Heaton a picture of Helen (since she is no longer the subject of his commission for Mr. Rose) or Beatrice. Rossetti can begin the work straight away and gives the price for the piece as 120 guineas, 50 to be paid at the commencement of the work, 35 when presented in advance of completion and 35 upon delivery. Rossetti does not doubt that he can complete it before Heaton leaves London, if he can begin work on it immediately. Rossetti says that Jeptha's daughter (as "a mere shadow") is incapable of functioning as the subject of a work "unless [it is] a dramatic one, of various figures including the incident connected with her." Rossetti muses that his treatment of this (or any other subject) should be independent from that of Tennyson's, stating that he "never illustrate[s] modern writers as a rule, though once or twice I have done so with Browning only, from especial love of him. Such mingling of contemporary ideas is like the intermarriage of the same families, sure to lead to degeneracy."