The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal by Jan Marsh

Where Marie painted during winter months, The family therefore lived for some years in Florence, and then Rome, Specialising in Balkan and Italian affairs. Stillman became a foreign correspondent for the Times, Steadily, these developed into figural scenes from Italian authors Surrounded by flowers, with poetic titles. Redoubled her efforts to paint and sell, following the current Aesthetic fashion for half-length female figures When she defied her parents to marry Stillman (they suspected him of fortune-hunting) she Her own ambition was further constrained by sympathy forĪn American widower with three children whose reports of Ottoman repression inĬrete made him a minor hero in London, and later devoted much time to caringįor her sister with mental health problems. That the current painting was his best to date, Marie tended, in the words of

Whereas Rossetti, for example, told each client As Virginia Woolf noted, ‘The chief glory ofĪ woman is not to be talked of, said Pericles’, yet the prime duty of an artist was to ‘make a name’. Inhibited by the proscription on women and publicity. Shipowner, her father urged her to make it a gift, lest a sale suggest he could not maintain his When she sold her first picture, to a rich Marie determined on being a professional artist, which was challenging. Unusually for her time, her gender and her social class, The spirit of friendship, she also sat to fellow artists Brown, Rossetti, and Julia Margaret Cameron, for whom Marie posed in a number of ‘subject’ pictures,Īs Hypatia, as the mother of the Muses and as the Spirit of the Vine. Spartalis had a summer home, and where they were acquainted with photographer Vibrant flowerpieces and landscapes, mainly set in the Isle of Wight, where the

She also produced a range of work in other genres, notably Medieval figures from the British myths of King Arthur. Heritage featuring classical heroines Antigone and Corinna, followed by Her first pictures were inspired by her Greek Orthodox, including the Cassavetti, Coronio, Ralli and Ionides families. Members of the art world – Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Julia Cameron, William and Marie studied with Ford Madox Brown, who became a lifelongīrown’s daughters Lucy and Catherine, who also became artists, and knew other Henry James described as a sincere, spontaneous Pre-Raphaelite in the VictorianĪrt movement that now carries that name, and one who ‘inherited the traditionsĪnd the temper‘ of the original early Italians who inspired the PRB. The English Heritage plaque memorialises the artist whom Regency-era mansion to which the wealthy, exiled Greek family moved in 1864 wasĬalled The Shrubbery thanks to its extensive grounds. Installed at the former Spartali home just off Clapham Common. A London blue plaque for Marie Spartali Stillman is being

The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal by Jan Marsh