An exciting new addition to the Unexpected Pre-Raphaelite Sightings page! Thank you to Victoria Osborne for sharing. The 2013 thriller The Best Offer (Deception) stars Geoffrey Rush as an eccentric art auctioneer with a secret collection of portraits of beautiful women – including Burne-Jones’ Vespertina Quies and one of Birmingham Museums’ Rossetti drawings of Fanny Cornforth. Pre-Raphaelite beauties … Read more
Forever has become a show that our entire family watches together. I love the premise: A 200-year-old man works in the New York City Morgue trying to find a key to unlock the curse of his immortality. Ioan Gruffud is on point every episode. His character, Henry Morgan, is dapper, elegant, and has a Sherlockian … Read more
This week marks the birth of William Shakespeare, so in celebration I shared several Pre-Raphaelite and Shakespeare related links on the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood Facebook page and Twitter. “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, … Read more
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 day! At the end of this post, you will find links to other Pre-Raphaelite images of Shakespearean works on PreRaphaeliteSisterhood.com. In celebration of the Bard’s birthday, here’s my favorite Shakespearean … Read more
It is thrilling to see Fanny Cornforth in the news this week. You may remember that recently, #WombatFriday was devoted to the mystery of Fanny Cornforth in honor of Kirsty Stonell Walker’s blog post that shed light on Fanny’s final years. For those of us that follow Pre-Raphaelite news closely, this was this first published … Read more
“The Wombat is a Joy, a Triumph, a Delight, a Madness!” ~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti Once again, regular readers will know that Friday means #WombatFriday! A day of celebrating the Pre-Raphaelites with silliness and a spirit of fun. Artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti had a lifelong love for wombats and his enthusiasm for them spread among … Read more
Happy #WombatFriday to you! It’s also Good Friday and Easter weekend is here, so I hope that whatever your plans, you have the loveliest of times. I am in desperate need of a chocolate bunny. Well, bunnies (who am I kidding?) There’s a lot going on, so here’s the latest Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian links: Earlier … Read more
To celebrate World Poetry Day, I share one of my favorite poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Sudden Light I have been here before, But when or how I cannot tell: I know the grass beyond the door, The sweet keen smell, The sighing sound, the lights around the shore. You have been … Read more
Once again, it’s #WombatFriday! This week, I am sharing a story with you because for Pre-Raphaelite enthusiasts, this is a profound discovery. Fanny Cornforth was a frequent model for for Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Historically, biographers have written more about his models Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris, leaving Fanny to the sidelines. Her past as a prostitute … Read more
Myths are our earliest experiments with metaphor and language. They are truths nestled within layers of mystery and magic that tell us that we can make it if we try. Myths don’t smother us in platitudes, they openly tell us that bad things are going to happen and evil exists. The truth of the tale … Read more
Huzzah! Once again it is #WombatFriday. Kirsty Stonell Walker has just written a fabulous post: The Illustrated Tennyson: A Brief History. So, in honor of Kirsty, today’s Wombat Friday has a Tennyson theme. Pictured above, our hero the wombat can be seen with my own illustrated copy of Tennyson and one of my favorite images: … Read more
Alice in Wonderland has a strong hold on our popular culture. Over a century has passed since it and the sequel Through the Looking Glass were written and Alice’s strange journeys charm us still. How many times can we reinterpret this book on screen? It seems to be an endless source of inspiration and the … Read more
On this day in 1862, Elizabeth Siddal died. In many accounts of her, you will see her death described as suicide. Whether intentional or not, she lost her life due to an overdose of Laudanum. You can read a transcript of the inquest here. The hills grow darker to my sight And thoughts begin … Read more
I was recently in a bookstore that had a special section devoted to boxed sets of books packaged with their movie adaptation. A little girl picked up Frankenstein and handed it to her mother, who rolled her eyes. “You don’t want that. That’s for boys.” I assume the mother had never heard of Mary Shelley. … Read more
Happy #WombatFriday! You can follow Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood on Facebook or Twitter. Posts at Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood this week included Veronica Veronese and Aspecta Medusa, both by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Kirsty Stonell Walker reviewed the catalogue for Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic. And took a look at Selfies and self portraits. The William Morris Gallery is … Read more
“The girl is in a sort of passionate reverie, and is drawing her hand listlessly along the strings of a violin which hangs against the wall, while she holds the bow with the other hands, as if arrested by the thought of the moment, when she was about to play. In color, I shall make … Read more
I’ve added a new entry to the Unexpected Sightings page. ‘Reverie’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti can be seen in the background of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is Mr. Pitt’s apartment, where the character Elaine works as Mr. Pitt’s personal assistant. Sixth episode of the sixth season of Seinfeld, titled ‘The Gymnast’. To see Pre-Raphaelite works … Read more
According to myth, after Prometheus stole fire from the gods, Zeus wanted to punish mankind. He ordered Hephaistos and other gods to create a woman that they would endow with gifts and beauty. Hephaistos created her lovely form; the Four Winds breathed life into her. Her beauty was given to her by Aphrodite. Zeus bestowed … Read more
And her enchanted hair was the first gold./And still she sits, young while the earth is old –from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet Lady Lilith Lilith appears here with pale skin and clad in a white gown, making her luxurious hair the most vivid thing in the room. In this painting, Dante Gabriel Rossetti is not … Read more
Leighton House Museum has announced an upcoming exhibit: A Victorian Obsession (November 2014 – March 2015), which will present fifty exceptional and rarely exhibited paintings by leading Victorian artists including Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Edward Burne Jones and Lord Leighton himself amongst others. The collection which belong to Mexican collector Juan … Read more
After my recent post on Dante’s Divine Comedy, I’ve been thinking about metaphorical descents into the Underworld. The rather beautiful Greek word for descent is katabasis, usually used to describe a hero’s journey into the underworld on a quest of some sort. It’s a journey seen in not only a variety of myths, but multiple … Read more
La Mandolinata is an excellent example of opulence in jewelry in Rossetti’s work. Complementing her brocade gown, we see that familiar spiral hair pin set among strands of pearls. ( The necklace is similar in style to the one seen in Rossetti’s Bocca Baciata and Fair Rosamund, both featuring model Fanny Cornforth. For more, see … Read more
Mauvais Sujet is not your stereotypical, chocolate-box-pretty Victorian portrait. She’s almost uncomfortable to look at, as she is both very young and almost sensual. On her desk you can see her name, Mary, scrawled in a childlike hand. I’m not exactly sure what Madox Brown wants us to feel about her. She’s obviously idle, choosing … Read more
The Tower of London is marking the centenary of World War I with a breathtaking art installation called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red by artist Paul Cummins. The installation will include total of 888,246 ceramic poppies, each flower representing a British military fatality from WWI. The tradition of using poppies for remembrance of those … Read more
Orpheus was given his lyre by the god Apollo and it was the Muses that taught him how to play. His gift for music enchanted all living things: wild beasts, trees and even stones. After his journeys with the Argonauts, Orpheus married his love Eurydice. When Eurydice died from a snake bite, grief-stricken Orpheus felt … Read more