#preraphaelite

[a-little-bit-pre-raphaelite]

24

The Light of the World, 1853, William Holman Hunt

This years Advent calendar is on the theme of Light

[preraphaelist]

The Pre-Raphaelite Pothole, Terrace Road, St. Leonards-on-sea; part of the Great Art, Great Potholes series by SinkySnap. (x)

[srednod]

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Triumph of the Will - The Challenge (detail), ca. 1877

[marejadilla]

Terra Chapman, "Butterfly Dance", 2023, watercolor & gouache. American painter based in Malta, Italy..

[i-love-this-art]

John Everett Millais / "Isabella" / 1849 / Walker Art Gallery

[spacepacks]

john william waterhouse' paintings headers || like or reblog if you save

[thesymbolsofparadise]

© The Lady of Shalott, circa 1875, by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893)

[psycheophiuchus]

"Dans un Jardin de Roses" - 2021.

Photographer & Model : Psyché Ophiuchus

Jewelry : @aurumina

Robe : @grimildemalatesta & Psyché O.

The magnificent @villaephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

[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.

[ungoliantschilde]

pencil drawings by Barry Windsor-Smith

[a-little-bit-pre-raphaelite]

details from The Queen of Hearts, 1896, John Byam Liston Shaw

[preraphaelist]

She bound her green sleeve on my helm Sweet pledge of love's sweet meed Warm was the bared arm round my neck As well she bade me speed; And her kiss clings still between my lips Heart's heat and strength at need.

My Lady Greensleeves by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1863; the back of the canvas is inscribed with the above fragment.

[elephantlovemedleys]

nicole kidman + art (love's shadow by frederick sandys, 1867. lettice knollys by george gower, 1585. in the grass by arthur hughes, 1865.)

[artschoolglasses]

Saint Eulalia, John William Waterhouse, 1885

[marejadilla]

Annie Stegg Gerard, "Timid Heart", oil on wooden panel. 

[litinart]

christina rossetti by dante gabriel rossetti (1866)