Elizabeth Siddal: The Power of the Muse

17/06/2023 - 08/07/2023

Vanessa Stockard

K-bomb Rossetti 'Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal'

2023

oil on dibond

23.00 x 15.00 cm

49 x 41 cm overall in a 19th C antique frame

Sold

K-bomb Rossetti 'Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal'

K-bomb William Morris Hunt 'Girl with a Cat'

K-bomb Fransisco de Zurbaran 'Allegory of Charity'

K-Bombs Rossetti 'Pandora and her Box'

K-bomb Waterhouse 'Lady of Shalott'

K-Bomb da Vinci 'Mona Lisa' II

Don't wash, don't cut, don't touch (Synthetic Styling)

K-bomb da Vinci 'Ginevera de Benci'

K-bomb Vermeer 'Lady in the Red Hat'

K-bomb Waterhouse 'The Lady Clare'

K-bomb Henri Fantin-Latour 'Sarah the Bather'

K-bomb Frederick Sandys 'Love's Shadow'

I don't feel big enough for the shower. I'm too small for the sink. Anxiety's r us!

It wasn't the moon, it wasn't the atmosphere either. Derek felt the bath soak vibe with all his being... he could barely stand it

Derek found himself in a truly awful bathroom without knowing how or when he'd arrived. Shivering with shock, Derek recalled his grandma's mantra "beauty can be found in the most unusual places"

Derek like to take advice, take his vitamin B and aim high (so he did)

Elizabeth Siddal: The Power of the Muse

Elizabeth Siddal: The Power of the Muse

I was a young art student at the time, fate as it were, had me living with an English family purportedly related to Elizabeth Siddal, the most famous Pre- Raphaelite muse of all time. Apparently, I had a ‘job’ as a nanny and/or house sitter at times. I’m not sure exactly what I did (not much ).. however Jenny let me live in their lovely terrace in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

I often talked about art with Jenny Siddall, the children’s mother, she let me follow her around the house like a lost duckling and I grew to love her very much.

The first time I saw Millais's Ophelia at the Tate, I burst into tears. It was the most powerful expression of tragedy and grief I had ever witnessed.

The woman depicted as Ophelia was Elizabeth Siddal (aka Lizzie), Millais's muse at the time. She was a strong painter herself and the only female to be admitted to the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhoods official group. Her work was wilder than her male counterparts, more imaginative too. It seemed a shame she had to spend most of her days sitting as a model. Apparently, she had dropped the final ‘l’ in her name Siddall to sound more French.

Her popularity was so rampant that her suitor, and later husband Gabriel Rossetti, refused others to paint her. Instead Rossetti painted her hundreds of times keeping her to himself. Other entranced men of note included art critic John Ruskin, also a keen collector of Siddals, Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt and poet Lord Byron.

I have included a couple of small paintings of Jenny when she was around 10 years old. I recalled her showing me these beautiful polaroids of herself. Her glorious head of hair draped over pillows on a white bed. She looked so much like a young Ophelia, I never forgot them. I felt it was an important personal touch to include some painted reference of one of arts greatest supermodels.

Seemingly we are obsessed with youth, beauty and talent.

So, I thank you for indulging in my homage to the legacy that Elizabeth Siddal continues to imbue in today’s culture and to the artists that worked so hard to impart such beauty.

Vanessa Stockard