Author: Stephanie E. Chatfield

  • The Faces of Elizabeth Siddal

    Elizabeth Siddal made great contributions to the Pre-Raphaelite movement; she appears in a number of important works. After posing for Deverell, Holman Hunt, Millais, and Rossetti she bravely moved to the other side of the easel and became a Pre-Raphaelite artist in her own right. She has fascinated me throughout my adulthood and today I’d…

  • Lizzie Siddal Emerges from the Ghostly Mist

    Lizzie Siddal Emerges from the Ghostly Mist

    It would have been a perfect plot for a 1960s Hammer horror film: on the death of his wife, a poet places a treasured manuscript of his poems in her casket. Years later he has a new muse and love, a woman who had been a friend to them both. So he ghoulishly engineers his…

  • What shapes our perception of Elizabeth Siddal?

    When beginning to research the life of Elizabeth Siddal, readers will invariably encounter this description of her, written by poet William Allingham in his diary: “Short, sad, and strange her life; it must have seemed to her like a troubled dream.” It’s a heartbreaking and poignant epitaph that contributes to our perception of Siddal as…

  • Did Elizabeth Siddal inspire Bram Stoker?

    In the early years of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, artist Walter Deverell discovered Elizabeth Siddal working in a millinery shop.  After modeling for his painting Twelfth Night, Siddal posed for several Pre-Raphaelite painters, including William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. It was the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti who was most captivated by her. He drew…

  • Book Review: Ophelia’s Muse

    This review was previously posted at Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood. The romance of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal lends itself well to fiction. It’s a story that has it all: beauty, pathos, and the synergy of artistic creation that flowed between them. Author Rita Cameron’s new book Ophelia’s Muse tells the story of Elizabeth Siddal’s discovery…

  • Elizabeth Siddal and Dante Gabriel Rossetti in Hastings (New Photos!)

    On the 23rd of May in 1860, Elizabeth Siddal and Dante Gabriel Rossetti were wed.  Their vows were exchanged in St Clement’s Church (there is a panoramic virtual tour here).  I am so grateful to Lynda Smith for allowing me to share her photos of the church (originally posted to her twitter account, @mouse_11) All photos…

  • The Worst Man in London

     Seven years after her death, the coffin of Elizabeth Siddal was exhumed so that her husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, could publish the poetry he had buried with her. It was a secret act, yet eventually the deed came to be known and has added a macabre tinge to the tale of Elizabeth Siddal. Rossetti was not present when his…

  • Guest Post from Kirsty Stonell Walker: The Tragedy of Elizabeth Siddal

    Kirsty Stonell Walker is the author of Stunner, the Fall and Rise of Fanny Cornforth. (Available at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk)  Kirsty originally shared this post on her blog The Kissed Mouth and I am extremely grateful that she granted me permission to post it here as well. ——– You will probably be aware by now…

  • Lizzie Siddal: A New Play by Jeremy Green

    Copperhead Productions and Peter Huntley Productions present THE WORLD PREMIERE OF LIZZIE SIDDAL A NEW PLAY BY JEREMY GREEN AT THE ARCOLA THEATRE from Wednesday 20 November – Saturday 21 December 2013 The Victorian art world. ‘To yearn for something – doesn’t that make life more intense?’ Lizzie Siddal, a new play about the woman…

  • Listen to Elizabeth Siddal’s poem ‘Lord May I Come?’

    I found actress Valerie Meachum’s recording of ‘Lord May I Come’ so moving, especially today on the 151st anniversary of her death.  Listen to it via soundcloud.