Dante Gabriel Rossetti letter to Ellen Heaton, 1855 November 24

Rossetti explains that he has been in Paris for the past ten days and so only just received Heaton's latest letter. Rossetti has heard from Ruskin that Heaton would prefer keeping the drawing from the Purgatorio of Rachel and Leah, or Matilda and Beatrice. Rossetti remarks that he has given Matilda and Beatrice the actions of Rachel and Leah and describes the two figures as "of an entirely Oriental character, as the real Rachel and Leah would be." Rossetti thanks Heaton for her second commission and tells her that he did not expect to be in Paris so long or her would have arranged to have his letters forwarded to him there. Rossetti thinks that the Exhibition of Pictures "does us [the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood?] credit" and praises the merits of exhibited works by Millais, Hunt and "Lewis and Leslie." Rossetti compliments the work of Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Kraus (Georg Melchior Kraus?). Rossetti admits that, like Heaton, he wishes Ruskin had attended the exhibition. Rossetti says he spent much of his time in Paris with the Brownings and passes on their kind regards to Heaton. Rossetti describes Robert Browning's "Men and Women" as "a glorious book."