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January 23, 2024 24 mins

Described by some as a, “charming rogue,” Charles Augustus Howell was a dodgy figure in Victorian art circles, in particular London’s Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement. There was extortion. There was forgery. And just a whole lot of unsavory bits. Howell was an art dealer by trade who was also known to manipulate those around him so he could acquire works that would establish and increase his reputation – and his financial security. When that didn’t work, in the words of biographer Humphrey Hare, "Howell did not hesitate to blackmail." So let’s get to know this charming-yet-unsavory character.

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership
with iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Described by some as a quote charming rogue. Charles Augustus
Howell was a dodgy figure in Victorian London's art circles.
There was deception, there was extortion, there was forgery, and
just a whole lot of unsavory bits. Howell was an

(00:34):
art dealer by trade who was also known to manipulate
those around him so he could acquire works that would
establish and increase his reputation and his financial security. When
that didn't work. In the words of biographer Humphrey Hare, quote,
Howell did not hesitate to blackmail. So let's get to
know this charming yet unsavory character. Welcome to Criminalia. I'm

(00:58):
Maria Trumurky and I'm Holly Frye. Howell was a flamboyant
fellow who charmed his way into the pre Raphaelite art movement.
The pre Raphaelites were a secret society, a brotherhood is
what they called themselves, of seven young artists who were
disenchanted with the contemporary painting scene in London at the time. Instead,

(01:19):
these artists were inspired by Italian art of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, and they emulated the art of late
Medieval and early Renaissance Europe through the time when Italian
High Renaissance painter Rafaelo Sanzio da Urbino, known as raphael
became popular, hence the name pre Raphaelites. Their intent was
to create a new British art movement, and although short lived,

(01:43):
they did this new movement. Their Brotherhood is characterized by
vivid detail and bright luminous colors, tight brushstrokes, and a
focus on small details. When it came to subject matter,
Naturalism was key. Was formed in London in eighteen forty
eight by three Royal Academy of Arts students. These principal

(02:06):
members were Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a poet as
well as a painter, painter William Holman Hunt and painter
John Everett Malay, painter James Collinson, art critic Frederick George Stevens,
sculptor Thomas Woolmer, and writer William Michael Rossetti, who was
Dante's brother, were also invited to join. All were under

(02:27):
the age of twenty five. Two additional painters, William Dyce
and Ford Maddox Brown were also associated with the movement
more as mentors really and also came to paint in
the pre Raphaelite style.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
There were critics, of course, and among them was famous
novelist Charles Dickens. These critics denounced the pre Raphaelites for
their disregard for the then academic ideal of beauty, but
also for what they considered an irreverence toward religious themes.
Not everyone felt that way, though, One leading art critics,
the polymath John Ruskin, defended their art, and primarily because

(03:04):
of Ruskin's support, the artists did not lack for patrons.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Five years after it started, the Brotherhood disbanded. John Malay,
who began as a child prodigy and was considered the
most technically gifted painter of the society, went on to
become an academic success. Of the original seven members, only
Hunt continued to pursue the style throughout most of his career,
and he remained true to the pre Raphaelite principles. The

(03:32):
style lived on through the eighteen fifties and eighteen sixties,
famously with painters Edward Burne, Jones and William Morris.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Howell was not himself an artist. He was an agent
and probably also a fixer. He was born in a Porto, Portugal.
Probably his father was an Englishman and his mother was Portuguese.
In fact, Howell claimed to have aristocratic Portuguese ancestry, and
he was known to where the red sash of the

(04:02):
Portuguese Order of Christ, of which he would be happy
to tell you was an inherited family order. He was
very concerned about status. The Howells moved to Britain when
Charles was young, and in some stories of his life
it's reported that throughout his adulthood he would sometimes make
up news stories about where he came from.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
In London, Howell officially and firmly entered the pre Raphaelite
circle when Ruskin employed him as his private secretary, a
position that trusted him with quote affairs needing delicate handling
at a wise discretion. As we get further into the
life of Charles Howell, though discretion may not be the
appropriate word to associate with him, but let's keep on going.

(04:48):
Though Howell increasingly argued for control over all of Ruskin's finances,
His work usually had him managing Ruskin's charitable donations. He
quickly became a close friend and an agent to a
succession of leading artists, including Dante, Gabriel Rossetti, Frederick Sands,
edwardburn Jones, George Frederick Watts, and American born artist James

(05:11):
McNeil Whistler. Whistler, who is considered the first contemporary artist,
was a significant figure in the Esthetic movement, a late
nineteenth century art movement that emphasized the idea of art
for art's sake. Whistler and Howell ran in similar circles.
Some consider Howell to have been his unofficial agent. Whistler

(05:32):
called Howell quote the creature of top boots and plumes,
splendidly flamboyant.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
So far, it seems like Charles Augustus Howell wasn't such
a bad guy. But we need to pause here for
a break and a word from our sponsors, and when
we return we will talk about how he became known
as a blackmailer and why his friends and business partners
all considered him a liar.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's start talking about why people
used words like skilled, amusing, and unscrupulous to describe Howell.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
At first, it seems there were a lot of good
things to say about this guy. He could get you work,
and he could sell it, he could manage money, he
could apparently tell a good story, and he was a
snappy dresser, so what's not to like. William Michael Rossetti
once commented on Howell's sharp sense of business and knowledge
of the artist world, stating he had quote quick and

(06:43):
accurate discernment of the merits of works of art and
decoration of many various kinds, along with extensive practical knowledge
of their market value. He continued that Howell was a
quote speculator and dealer in the works of many kinds,
and a skillful salesman with his open manner, his winning address,
with his exhaustless gift of amusing talk, not innocent of

(07:06):
high coloring and actual blague, Howell was unsurpassable, and it's
true he had secured many commissions for many artists. But
there were cracks in Howell's character, and William also noted
that Howell had quote the ability to exploit people's hobbies
and weaknesses.

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Painter Ford Maddox Brown described him similarly as quote second
to no One in England and his intimate knowledge of
ancient and oriental furniture, china tapestries, but he also called
him quote one of the biggest liars in existence.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Eventually, Edward Burne Jones convinced Ruskin to sever his connections
with Howell. The pre Raphaelite circle began to find him
less and less charming and more to faced and corrupt.
He could get things done for you, but he could
also get things done against you.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
There are many stories of unethical, dishonest, and shameless things
Howell did, but we chose this one because it just
may be tops. As a master manipulator. Howell once convinced
Dante Rosetti to exhume the body of his wife, Elizabeth
Lizzie Siddle, to retrieve a book of poems he had

(08:22):
buried with her, because Howell, as Rosetti's agent, thought he
could make some money from them. Lizzie Siddle was an
artist and a model, and she was both Rosetti's wife
and his muse. She modeled for several artists in the
pre Raphaelite brotherhood, and she became one of the most
famous faces in Victorian England when she died of a

(08:42):
laudanum overdose just two years into their marriage in eighteen
sixty two. Rossetti placed in her coffin a journal containing
the only copies of many of his poems. Seven years
after her death, Howell somehow convinced Rossetti to dig up
the grave and retrieve that a.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Rosetti at this time in his life was broke and
he was struggling with both grief and with alcohol misuse,
a problem that he had developed after Lizzie's death. These
were facts that Howell knew and that he took advantage
of for his own financial gain. This was not to
help a friend in need. At Howell's insistence and persistence,

(09:22):
Rosetti got permission from Home Secretary Henry A. Bruce to
have the coffin exhumed and to remove the book from inside.
That event took place on October fifth, eighteen sixty nine,
and it was done at night, so as to avoid
causing any offense and to avoid causing anyone to think
they were illegal body snatchers. Rosetti did not attend. London

(09:45):
Solicitor Henry Virtue Tebbs accompanied Howell at the grave site,
acting in illegal capacity as witness to the items taken
from the coffin. Doctor Llewellen Williams also attended. His role
was disinfecting the book. According to Howell's version of the event,
after seven years, Lizzie had remained perfectly preserved, and he

(10:06):
described her coffin to be full of her flowing hair.
Howell and Rosetti did get the journal, and once the
poems were transcribed, Rossetti had the original manuscript destroyed. The poems, though,
hit the wrong notes with critics. On top of poor
reviews and poor sales. Rosetti had said never got over

(10:27):
the night his wife's body was disinterred.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Admission of what they did that night in October of
eighteen sixty nine did not become public until after Dante's
death in eighteen eighty two. British writer Sir Thomas Henry Halkan,
commonly known as Halcane, later recalled that his friend Dante
regretted going through with the disinterment, citing this quote weakness

(10:50):
of yielding to the importunity of friends and the impulse
of literary ambition of Howell. Halcane had little good to say,
and referred to him as a quote soldier of fortune.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
There's no clear evidence that Howell blackmail Dante Gabrielle Rossetti
into digging up the book, but historians tend to err
on the side of yes he used blackmail, as Howell
had a reputation of using that tactic wherever and whenever
he could to get whatever he wanted. However, it is
also plausible that Howell skipped the blackmail and simply took

(11:26):
advantage of a suffering man. After the exhumation of Lizzie
Siddall's grave, Dante's brother William Rosetti insisted that the entire
incident be kept quiet.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
We're going to take a break for a word from
our sponsors. When we're back, we will talk about forgery,
more blackmail, and where Howell's character lives on today.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about Howell's involvement with
forgery and how he exploited the pre Raphaelite artists.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Charles Augustus Howell's tendency for manipulation in blackmail often ended
his relationships, as any of us may imagine, but there
was a charm factor at play. Even after he'd pressured
Dante Rossetti to exhume Lizzie's coffin, his relationship with Rosetti
didn't end. That usually didn't happen until after he persuaded

(12:34):
his lover Rosa Cord to create forgeries of Rosetti's art.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Rosa Francis Cord was Howell's mistress. He had a wife,
and she wasn't it. Corter studied art, and for a
time she had a studio at Newmarket where she painted
racehorses and also portraits. Because of Howell's influence and insistence,
she began to make copies of the eighteenth century portraits
and erotic drawings of Henryfuse. Her name then became associated

(13:03):
with forgeries of Rosetti's works, as well as works by
John Malay. In her set of four drawings called the
Story of Saint George Slaying the Dragon, which is based
on stained glass windows by Dante Gabrielle Rosetti, the head
of Saint George is said to have been modeled on
Charles Augustus Howell behind the scenes of that particular work

(13:25):
of art. In a letter dated March twenty second, eighteen
seventy six, Dante wrote to Howell stating, quote, you borrowed
a set of drawings of Saint George and the Dragon
to copy for your own use only, please return them
at once. Howell clearly didn't respect that whole for your

(13:45):
own use part and Corter's forgery of Saint George Slaying
the Dragon was later presented to the Birmingham Museums and
Art Gallery by an anonymous donor through the National Art
Collection's Fund in nineteen oh five. Corter's originals remain there today.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
For a time, Howell's wit and charm secured him a
favored spot in several artists' lives, despite the awareness of
his lies and manipulation in their tight circle. For instance,
years after Dante Rosetti became convinced that Howell was profiting
off of selling forgeries of his art, he still allegedly
was endeared to how entertaining of a person Howell could be.

(14:27):
Howell didn't do much to hide his true nature, though
in addition to selling quarters forgeries, he very likely embezzled
funds from Ruskin, and he made shady side deals while
acting as agent for both Dante Rosetti and Edward Burne Jones.
Burne Jones scathingly described Howell as quote a base, treacherous, unscrupulous,

(14:48):
and malignant fellow. Years later, Edward's wife, Georgiana burn Jones
described him as someone who had quote come against us
in friend's clothing, but inwardly he was a stra to
all that our life meant.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Howell also worked as an agent to those who were
not in the pre Raphaelite circle, such as with Whistler.
He became a business advisor and personal secretary to English
poet and critic Algernon Swinburne, an arrangement described as quote
not only his man of business, but also the partner
of his amusements and the recipient of his confidences. But

(15:25):
after some of Swinburne's letters passed through Howell to a
publisher named George Redway without Swinburne's permission, Swinburne was of
course outraged, and he demanded the return of those letters.
Many versions of this story suggest the letters contained quote
indecent content of some sort, but regardless, he then faced

(15:47):
blackmail from Redway. He was expected to give up the
copyright of the manuscript a word for the Navy or
the Saucy Letters would be published. Swinburne gave in, and
he blame Howell for the whole sordid affair. After Howell's death,
Swinburne wrote that he hoped Howell was quote in that
particular circle of malbouge, where the coding of eternal excrement

(16:11):
makes it impossible to see whether the damn dog's head
is or is not tonsured. It's safe to say that
Swinburne was not going to eulogize him.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Though Howells considered to have been a well known blackmailer.
We would be remiss if we didn't mention how Biographer
Helen Rosetti Angelie has added to his legend that she
has found actually nothing to support those accusations. Angelie, the
daughter of William Michael Rosetti, doesn't defend Howell, but suggests
that specific idea perhaps rose from extrapolations and assumptions related

(16:46):
to the blackmail incident involving Swinburne and Redway, but not
from Howell himself. What we know from the artists he
worked with is that it's certain he couldn't be trusted.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Like his birth, Howell's death at age five fifty is
equally shadowy. Some reports suggest he probably died of tuberculosis,
but in the more colorful and popular versions of the
story of his death, it's reported that he was found
murdered outside of Chelsea Public House, with his throat slit,
and in some cases it's said that a coin was

(17:18):
placed between his teeth, perhaps in a nod to the
custom in Greek mythology paying the ferryman who carried the
dead across the River Styx in the underworld.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
In the art world, Howell lives on as a two
faced and morally bankrupt character, and such is also true
in the literary world. Howell was the inspiration for British
author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's antagonist in the Sherlock Holmes
story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, published in nineteen
oh four. Doyle, a contemporary of Howell, writes the character

(17:52):
of Charles Augustus Milverton as quote, the king of Blackmailers,
and critics point out that Milverton inspires in Sherlock Holmes
a revulsion that's far greater than any of the murderers
he encounters in his albeit fictional career. While Swinburne once
described the real Howel as quote the violist wretch I

(18:13):
ever came across, the fictional Holmes described the fictional Milverton
as the worst man in London. Do you want to
talk a little bit about coercion and coercion concoction?

Speaker 1 (18:25):
I Do you want to talk about coercion concoctions. When
I was first looking at your notes on this, one
particular alcohol immediately jumped to my mind in thinking about Howell,
and that was Furnet Bronca. Now, just in case our

(18:52):
listeners don't know about furnet bronca, it is a very
bitter Italian liqueur. It's usually classify it as in amorrow.
Some people would argue that it's actually its own subcategory,
but there's a whole funny side of it where it's
also nicknamed the bartender's handshake because bartenders like to do

(19:13):
shots of it. It is not delicious to everyone's palate.
I'll put it back.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
I don't think we have used it before.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
We have none. Because it is not delicious to everyone's
palat people often describe it as something reminiscent of like
a Jaegermeister, but without the sweetness. It's got some bite.
So I thought we would put that in a drink
and see if we could make it delightful in its
own way. I will say this is a drink that

(19:42):
not everyone's gonna love, not only because it has fer
net bronca, but because it is almost all alcohol. It's
a heavy hitter. Sure, so even if you do love it,
maybe just drink one.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
The inspiration for this, and the name of the drink
is Buried Poems because I wanted some thing that had
a very unique and bold flavor. Because you have to
be bold as hell to suggest to your friend that
they should dig up their deceased beloved because you want

(20:14):
something that's in the coffin.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
That's just brazing, that's crazy, I know.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
So I wanted a very bold flavor. So here we go.
Buried Poems is go ahead and pre chill that martini
or cocktail glass. You want it cold, go ahead and
put in the fridge. You want an ounce and a
half of pomegranate liqueur, an ounce and a half of vodka. Now,
when we get to for net Bronca, this is poorer's

(20:41):
choice because these sound like minute amounts, but I'm telling
you they have a strong impact on it. If you
have never had it before and you're not sure that
you're going to be into it, just put in like
an eighth of an ounce, and if you're feeling a
little more brazen, go ahead and go up to a
quarter of an ounce. That's literally how little we're doing here.
And then I also added a quarter ounce of vanilla syrup.

(21:05):
Shake this until it is so cold with ice. This
is one of those spirits that like, the colder it is,
the better it is. Right, if you were to drink
warm for a net, you would be like, this is scorable.
I again, I cautioned be very judicious with your use
of it because it can start to taste like pomegranate
cough syrup and you don't want that. But you're just

(21:26):
gonna shake this, shake it, strain it into your pre
chilled glass. It's a really interesting sip, right, It does
have that like herbal medicinal note to it, but I
actually found like the pomegranate tempered that quite a bit
and made it something interesting to my palette.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
Anyway, does the pomegranate make this drink red like his sash?

Speaker 1 (21:48):
It's pinkish. It's not enough to make it red, but yeah, pinkish, pinkish.
It also depends on the pomegranate liqueur you get. Somemmer
are redder than others. Now, if you want to do
the mocktail, we're gonna do some stuff a little bit
different because you just kind of have to.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah, this is a very strong drink.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
It's all alcohol, right. What you're gonna do for the
mocktail is you're gonna do two and a half ounces
of pomegranate juice and one ounce of licorice tea. And
then I hope in your case you are not the
person who absolutely won't drink bitters because they have minute

(22:25):
amounts of alcohol in them, but because you need a
couple of dashes of angster of bitters here because it
it gives it that kind of edginess that the furnette
would have. It's not the same, nothing is quite. You
cannot replicate what fernet does in my opinion. But so
just two dashes of bitters, so it's super easy. Two
and a half ounces of pomegranate juice, one ounce of
licorice tea, two dashes of bitters, and then a quarter

(22:48):
ounce of vanilla syrup. And the reason we bump down
the syrup is because we're working with a juice, so
that's already sweet. Same thing, shaken up, pour it into
a pre chilled glass. Delicious in a different way, probably
more delic just to most palettes them the cocktail. But
the cocktail is really fun, and I think pretty.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yummy should be tried. Got to try it.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, you gotta try it. Listen. That's how you discover
your favorite things.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Right.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
You may not know what your favorite cocktail is yet
because you haven't sipped it. You got to go out
and try all the weird stuff because one of them
could be magical for you, and it might be for
net maybe somebody. I love it. I am not a
person who wants to do a shot of furnet, but
some people truly love it. But I do love a
shot of Yeager, So your mileage may vary. Right. That

(23:37):
is the Buried Poems, which kind of breaks my heart.
I feel like Rosetti is the one who just got
hung out to dry emotionally and all of this. What
a guy, Howl, You're not cool man. We hope that
you have had a cool time hanging out with us
today and hearing about Howl's absolutely horrifying behavior, and that

(23:59):
you will come back and visit us again, because next
week we're going to be right back here with more
blackmail and another cocktail. Criminalia is a production of Shondaland
Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio,

(24:20):
please visit the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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Holly Frey

Holly Frey

Maria Trimarchi

Maria Trimarchi

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