As I shared in The Magic Down the Rabbit Hole, immersing myself in a subject and following its trails is one of the biggest delights…
The model for Millais’ painting of Portia has often been incorrectly identified as Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry. The model was actually Kate Dolan, although the…
Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare, born on this day in 1564. Today is also the anniversary of the Bard’s death. Dare I say it? Dying…
I am honored and excited to be in the current issue of Shakespeare Magazine. Huge thank you to editor Pat Reid for publishing my article…
If you’re interested in studying the Victorian era seriously, then diaries and letters are important. At times I feel like a 21st-century snoop, devouring personal…
An important hallmark of Pre-Raphaelite art is truth to nature. Of course, there are many reasons why the art of the Pre-Raphaelites is so visually…
Perdita (seen above) was painted by Frederick Sandys with Mary Emma Jones as the model. Also known by her stage name Miss Clive, Mary Emma…
When I was fifteen years old, my father taught me how to drive. I was eager, yet scared; I couldn’t believe that I had actually…
Above is Sir John Everett Millais’ painting Mariana, which I’ve blogged about before in this post. Her dress is bluer than blue, the stained glass…
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays…
If you are looking for Shakespeare inspiration today, you are in luck! Visit happybirthdayshakespeare.com for a large collective of bloggers sharing posts in honor of the…
Today marks the birthday of John Singer Sargent in 1856. So I thought I’d share one of my favorite works of his, Dame Ellen Terry…
When Millais first exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy, he displayed it with these lines of Tennyson: She only said, ‘My life is dreary-…
The tale of Thisbe comes from book four of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In ancient Babylon, the families of Pyramus and Thisbe live in separate houses that…
In The Tempest, Shakespeare tells us the story of Prospero, duke of Milan. Prospero was dethroned by his brother Antonio and abandoned at sea with…
In Rossetti’s 1853 drawing Boatmen and Siren, one of the boatmen is captivated by the siren, but is saved from certain death by his companion.…
When John Everett Millais painted Ophelia he chose to depict her in the moments just before she drowns, a bold choice as most previous artists…
If you are looking for Shakespeare inspiration today, you are in luck! Visit happybirthdayshakespeare.com for a large collective of bloggers sharing posts in honor of the…
Macbeth is such a powerful play that we fear invoking the name of it in the theatre. It’s one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies and with…
My interest in Dame Ellen Terry takes me to a period a bit later than the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Born into an acting family, Terry married…
I’ve become quite interested in the actress Ellen Terry . One of the most popular performers of her day, Terry was briefly married to artist…
If you are looking for Shakespeare inspiration today, you are in luck! Visit happybirthdayshakespeare.com for a large collective of bloggers sharing posts in honor of the…
“Romeo and Juliet‘s description of the frantic haste of the rash lovers blends together humor, irony, poignancy, and disapproval, but Shakespeare conveys above all…
King Lear is a tragic play filled with anger and grief. It is wrought with suffering and explores issues of old age and family as…
Claudio and Isabella, painted by William Holman Hunt, is based on Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure. “The choice of such a scene is typical of…
