Elizabeth Siddal & Jane Morris
Pre-Raphaelite models as artists in their own right
Photographs of Elizabeth Siddal (left) and Jane Morris (right)
Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris are mostly known as artists' models for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, representing the ideal of feminine beauty for the movement.
Elizabeth Siddal famously modelled for John Everett Millais's Ophelia (1852)
Jane Morris in paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Proserpine (1874) + The Daydream (1880)
But both women were also artists themselves.
In the paintings and drawings she modelled for, Siddal is never depicted as looking directly at the viewer. Instead, she is languid and lovely, gazing off dreamily into the distance or closing her eyes, like in the examples below.
Elizabeth Siddal in paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Regina Cordium (1860) + Beata Beatrix (1870)
Her self-portrait, however, presents a fascinating contrast.
Elizabeth Siddal's self-portrait (1854)
Her expression is stony and her gaze is direct. She knows you're looking, and she's looking right back. It reminds me of the Agnès Varda quote,
“The first feminist gesture is to say: OK, they're looking at me. But I'm looking at them.”
Here are some more of Siddal's own paintings below.
Her style is distinct and striking.
Lady Clare (1857), The Quest of the Holy Grail (1855), Clerk Saunders (1857), Holy Family (1856)
Jane Morris was not a painter herself, but an embroiderer, bookbinder, and calligrapher.
She came from a working-class background and only received an artistic education as an adult, after she married William Morris.
Unfortunately, not much of her work survives, or can be definitively attributed to her, but the two floral patterns below reveal her skill with the needle.
amandla
titsay
prguitarman
vaporwave
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
