Elizabeth Siddall is a strikingly familiar face to Pre-Raphaelite lovers. She is known to many as Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s muse and the face of Millais’ doomed Ophelia. But she was more than that. Through her own artwork and poetry, we can look beyond her face and attempt to hear her voice. A new edition of her poetry has magnified that…
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Contemplating Hours: Pairing Burne-Jones and Siddal
In The Shape of My Heart, I shared that I like to blend seemingly unrelated works of art much like one would pair wine with food. Today’s concoction is Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ painting The Hours with a poem by Elizabeth Siddal. “I have been working very hard in spite of all things, and I hope to finish the ‘Wheel of…
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A Wombat’s Breakfast
T-Dub, trusty sidekick to Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, has been reading about what life was like in Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s home. You know what he was interested in? The food. Ah, little wombat friend, you are a creature after my own heart. Novelist George Meredith was apparently disgusted by Rossetti’s breakfasts, which he described as “Plates of small-shop ham, thick cut, grisly…
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The Dragon Within
As a little girl, I enjoyed Nancy Drew, Wonder Woman, and Princess Leia, all of whom had moments of peril where they were helped by men, but more often than not relied on their own intelligence and courage to navigate situations and save the day. Yet I also enjoyed adventures of knights and maidens that could be seen by many…
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Balancing on the Bridge
We carry an entire world in our pocket that allows us to search for information without opening a reference book. I can write you a quick note without ever putting pen to paper, and send it without a stamp or an envelope. Every day, millions of people take selfies that are filtered into perfection. No doubt the Victorians would marvel…
