Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Elizabeth Siddal
-
Standard Name: Siddal, Elizabeth
Birth Name: Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal
Nickname: Guggums
Through her work as model and muse, ES
has been firmly ensconced as an icon of Pre-Raphaelitism. However, recent feminist reassessments of her visual art and poetry are reclaiming her as artistic subject rather than object. Jan Marsh writes in the catalogue to a 1991 exhibition of ES
's work at Sheffield's Ruskin Gallery
, her artistic oeuvre is small both in size and range. But it was original, serious-minded and modestly successful, and deserves to be accorded a small but significant place in the history of Pre-Raphaelite art.
Marsh, Jan. Elizabeth Siddal, 1829-1862: Pre-Raphaelite Artist. The Ruskin Gallery.
Only twelve pages long, GA
's pamphlet is a successful sustained attempt to inhabit the mind ofElizabeth Eleanor Siddal
, a dressmaker, artist and poet,who became the Pre-Raphaelites' favourite model, married D. G. Rossetti
The Wife of Rossetti
: Her Life and Death, a biography of Elizabeth Siddal
, was VH
's last publication. It was praised by many writers of the time.
Rogers, John H., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 162. Gale Research.
162: 140
Intertextuality and Influence
Violet Hunt
While the topic of creative women ill-treated and abandoned by their male counterparts runs through VH
's body of work, she had become deeply interested in Siddal
's particular experiences by 1882. She was surrounded...
Reception
Vernon Lee
This book lost Lee the friendship of others who had admired her Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy. Broken friendships included those with Oscar Wilde
(refigured as the character Posthlethwaite), Jane
and William Morris
Textual Production
Christina Rossetti
That December, CR
composed another haunting exploration of women's roles, particularly their place within Pre-Raphaelite
aesthetics, following a visit to her brother's studio, which was crowded with pictures of Elizabeth Siddal
.
Marsh, Jan. Christina Rossetti: A Writer’s Life. Viking.
186
Rossetti, Christina. The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti. Editor Crump, Rebecca W., Louisiana State University Press.
3: 463
Occupation
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
DGR
's models as a painter included his sister Christina
(whose poem An Artist's Studio offers an interesting perspective on the project of the male artist), his companion painter, poet, and eventual wife Elizabeth Siddal
Family and Intimate relationships
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
There is no clear evidence that he and Siddal
, who began sitting for him in the early 1850s, were lovers during the course of their early connection and lengthy engagement, but as her health...
Cultural formation
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Long after his wife
's death, DGR
seemed haunted by her memory. In 1868, the year before exhuming her grave, he expressed the belief that her spirit was in a chaffinch he encountered while staying...
Friends, Associates
Christina Rossetti
Around this time she became aware of her brother Dante Gabriel
's involvement with Elizabeth Siddal
, although she and Siddal met only in 1854 and were never intimate friends. Close family friends of Christina...
Timeline
25 April 1870: Dante Gabriel Rossetti published a collection...
Writing climate item
25 April 1870
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
published a collection of Poems, which included Sister Helen, Jenny, and the first part of his sonnet sequence The House of Life.
Texts
Siddal, Elizabeth. Poems and Drawings. Editors Lewis, Roger C. and Mark S. Lasner, Wombat Press, 1978.