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…
On this day in 1829, Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall was born (she dropped a letter L from her name when she became an artist). I write…
Many people hear about Elizabeth Siddal through dramatic anecdotes of her life, such as the serious illness she suffered as a result of posing in…
For those of us who admire Pre-Raphaelite art, Elizabeth Siddal is a familiar face. Her story is repeated often and frequently embellished. When beginning to…
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,…
“I was ushered into one of the prettiest and most curiously furnished old-fashioned parlours that I had ever seen. Mirrors and looking-glasses of all shapes,…
In 1859, Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted Bocca Baciata and it was a radical change in style. Afterwards his work gravitated towards images of a single…
It would have been a perfect plot for a 1960’s Hammer Horror film: on the death of his wife, a poet places his manuscript of…
Seven years after her death, the coffin of Elizabeth Siddal was exhumed so that her husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, could publish the poetry he…
“He does not love me for my birth, Nor for my lands so broad and fair; He loves me for my own true worth, And…
