Models And Mistresses - The Pre-raphaelites
The Pre-Raphaelite models included Lizzie Siddall
, who later married Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Fanny Cornforth who, after Lizzie's death, became Rossetti's housekeeper. Emma Hill modelled for and later became Ford Madox Brown's second wife. Annie Miller sat for and later became engaged to William Holman Hunt. The artists also relied on family, friends and pupils. The models were the artists' mistresses, muses, companions, family and friends but where did they come from and what did society think of them?
Lizzie Siddall's father ran a cutlery business but any profits he made in the business were spent on a lawsuit trying to prove he was the legal owner of Crossdaggers, a family business. The family were poor and the cost of the lawsuit would have been a contributing factor. Nevertheless the children were educated to befit the social standing that their father believed was their right. All the children had to work and Lizzie worked for a milliner. When William Deverell asked her to sit for him it was thought that working as a model would be less challenging for Lizzie's health. Lizzie would later become an artist and poet in her own right and was patronised by John Ruskin. It seems that her father did have a claim to the family business but he died without achieving recognition.
The painting which made both artist and model famous was 'Ophelia' by John Everett Millais for which she had to sit in a bath which was kept warm by lamps underneath. This was so that Millais could accurately observe and paint the fabric of her gown in water.
Emma Hill's grandson tells us that she was the daughter of a Herefordshire farmer who lost his money. She lived with Ford Madox Brown for four years before she married him and during this time bore him a daughter.
Both Emma and Lizzie had an addiction, Emma to alcohol and Lizzie to laudanum. Emma's addiction cost Madox Brown money and time away from his easel. He had to spend time getting her out of difficult situations and she often 'lost' her money while out. Their household bill for alcohol was sometimes three times that of necessities.
One of the key paintings that Emma sat for was 'The Last of England, 1852-55'. Ford Madox Brown included a self portrait to complete the couple.
Marie Spartali was the daughter of a Greek shipping magnate. She also posed for Ford Madox Brown. Not only was she a model but she aspired to be an artist herself. Marie Spartali and Maria Zambaco, a painter and sculptor in her own right, along with Maria's cousin Mary were known as the Three Graces. Artists liked to paint the three of them. Marie Spartali became Ford Madox Brown's pupil and Maria Zambaco became a student of Edward Burne-Jones. Both were to inspire love in their tutors. Maria Zambaco and Burne Jones had an affair which was the talk of the town. Their relationship was stormy and Maria attempted suicide in Regent's canal. At one point they did run off together but Burne Jones was taken ill at Dover and returned to his wife. Their affair continued for a few years until Maria accepted that he was not going to leave his wife.
Maria Spartali modelled for Rossetti's Fiammetta.
Mathilde Blind also posed for Madox Brown. She would become poet, novelist and critic, translator and biographer. She took an interest in his art and he in her poetry. She even lived with Madox Brown and Emma from time to time. They presented their relationship as an intellectual one but it caused friction at home particularly with Madox Brown's daughters.
Annie Miller was the daughter of a soldier and a cleaner. By the age of ten she was looking after someone else's children while their mother went out to earn extra cash as a prostitute. A few years later she became a barmaid and in this milieu would have heard about the money to be earned as a courtesan. She modelled for Holman Hunt for the now famous picture 'the Awakening Conscience'. Hunt planned to marry Annie and left arrangements for her to be educated while he went away to Palestine in 1854 but there was a risk that once educated she might marry someone else. He also left a list of artists she might sit for i.e. those that would not ask her to pose nude. There was a fashion for 'saving' women at this time. Annie apparently found the boundaries Hunt set difficult to live with and the engagement was later broken off.
Jane Burden was born in Oxford to a stableman and his wife, a domestic servant. Rossetti first came across Jane at the theatre in Oxford. She married William Morris but later became Rossetti's mistress. She posed for paintings such as 'Proserpine' by Rossetti.
Fanny Cornforth whose real name was Sarah Cox came from the lower/rural working class of English society. She claimed she was from a good but impoverished family. She became one of Rossetti's models and mistresses. After Lizzie Siddall died Cornforth became Rossetti's housekeeper. She features in his painting the 'Blue Bower' and 'Found'.
Beatrice Herbert (Mrs Crabb) an actress also modelled for Rossetti. Her beauty made up for her lack of acting skills.
All these women were considered beauties in their own time and were singled out by the artists themselves. They came from a variety of backgrounds. Rossetti had quite a low opinion of models believing them to have the morals of whores until he met Lizzie Siddall. This seems a bit of a blanket judgement. Marie Spartali always posed clothed.
Maria Zambaco posed unclothed for Burne-Jones. Even her mother apparently accepted the idea of life modelling and actually gave away a picture of her daughter nude as a wedding present.
Many of the models were uneducated and the fashion was to rectify this to make them fit for marriage ie Emma Hill and Annie Miller. The artists evidently didn't see a problem with marrying women who had been models. There seems to me to be a contradiction here. The artists adhered the idea of rescuing 'fallen women' and yet so often were involved in their falling.
by: Gen Wright
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