#artist is john everett

[diioonysus]

it's all in the eyes

[mismedleym]

In the back of my mind, it’s always there

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

John Everett Millais (1829-1896) "The Grey Lady" (1883) Oil on canvas Pre-Raphaelite

[lightthereis]

Christmas Eve by John Everett Millais, 1887

[the-most-sublime-fool]

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.

Elizabeth Siddal

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

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.

[pam3pr]

[art1for2the3masses]

John Everett Millais, Portrait of a Girl (Sophie Gray) 1857

[arinewman7]

Cherry Ripe

Sir John Everett Millais

1879

[cherulean-art]

Probably my biggest illustration 🌱

[no-tengo-ojos]

Because more people are sharing their Faroe designs now I think I can finally talk about an idea that’s been cloncking around in my head for a good few months

Faroe as John Everett Millais’ Ophelia

So! Art history time!

(TW overdose and suicide)

It’s a fairly well known story but I’ll tell it for those of you who don’t know. The model for the main figure in the painting (Ophelia) was Elizabeth Siddal, a pre-raphaelite model and artist. Millais had her lie in a warmed bath so he could fully capture her dress and hair floating etc.. But at one point during the process the flame under the bath went out and the water got so incredibly cold that Siddal contracted pneumonia and was prescribed laudanum to help her recover. She became addicted and eventually overdosed.

The scene itself is taken from Shakespeare’s Hamlet in which the character Ophelia drowns herself after subsuming to overwhelming grief.

[theartofmetal]

134. Funeral - Ghost Bath (DSBM/Post-Black Metal, 2014)

Art by John Everett Millais: "Ophelia", 1851 - 1852

 It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river.

Millais’s model for the painting was a young woman aged nineteen called Elizabeth Siddall. To create the effect of Elizabeth pretending to be Ophelia drowning in the river, she posed for Millais in a bath full of water. To keep the water warm some oil lamps were placed underneath.

While posing, Elizabeth wore a very fine silver embroidered dress bought by Millais from a second-hand shop for four pounds.

[diioonysus]

blue + art

[apisceslearnsart]

A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge

John Everett Millais

1852

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

John Everett Millais (1829-1896) "Mercy: St Bartholomew’s Day, 1572" (1886) Oil on canvas Pre-Raphaelite Located in the Tate Gallery, London, England The painting portrays an imaginary incident at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris on 24 August 1572, when thousands of Protestants were slaughtered by Catholics. A Nun begs for '"Mercy"' on behalf of the hapless Protestants, but the man pulls her arm away and moves to follow the call to arms indicated by the Friar who beckons from the open doorway.

[lightthereis]

Sir John Everett Millais - Irené (1862)

[outofthiisworld]

✦˖° @asurastro sulking sulkers sulk !!!

ᯓ💜˖° Oh. Well. That’s not quite the answer Ophelia wanted to hear … but, that’s exactly why she went to Rex, right? He’d tell her the hard truth with no sickly sweet sugar to swallow. Despite that, it still didn’t sit right with her. She frowned and blew a disgruntled raspberry.

“Ew.”

That was all Ophelia could say at first. The whole thing itched at her skin. Encore after encore after encore after encore— 

“What do you do to not let it sweep you off your feet again?” She suddenly asked. “It’s so nice at first. But then it’s too much, even though I like it sometimes.”

The ‘it’ remained unspoken. All that everything and nothing, twisted in an overwhelming overstimulation of love and hate; the spotlight and the shadows; worship and condemnation.

“Is it ... okay to like it sometimes?”