I would like to compile a list of Pre-Raphaelite sightings from movies, television shows, etc. So, if you have a siting to share, post a comment!
I love Inspector Morse mysteries. If you are not familiar with them, it was a wonderful a television program that originated in the UK and are based on the novels by Colin Dexter. Set in Oxford, it is a visually stunning series to watch. I first saw them here in the US on PBS Mystery! and later on the A&E network. My father, a fellow mystery lover, first introduced me to the curmudgeonly Morse (who drinks too much and has a passion for both opera and crosswords). It had been years since I’d seen a Morse episode, so I bought several DVD’s online. Imagine my surprise when in the first few minutes of the first episode I saw Rossetti’s Proserpine!
The drawing of the wall looks very much like one of Rossetti’s studies of Annie Miller. Perhaps for Helen of Troy?
The painting on the easel is not Pre-Raphaelite, it was created for the film. But it is identical to Monna Vanna, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. If you watch closely, you can see this painting several times in the movie.
Now, this siting surprised me the most given that I have seen this movie hundreds of times and I never noticed that Solitude by Frederic, Lord Leighton hangs in the hallway in My Fair Lady! I’ll share Leighton’s image first:
More William Morris wallpaper?
Added Sept. 2, 2008:
On the same evening, I find that Grace of The Beautiful Necessity has posted some wonderful sightings from a BBC miniseries Daniel Deronda:
Update October 12, 2008: Last night I was watching Inspector Lewis Series II on Masterpiece Mystery. Lewis is a sequel to my beloved Inspector Morse mysteries. I was ecstatic to see this Pre-Raphaelite poster advertising an exhibit at the Tate. The painting is Monna Vanna by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
This episode of Inspector Lewis is titled The Quality of Mercy and you can watch it online here!
William Morris Wallpaper in The Spiderwick Chronicles (please click for Grace’s full post)
Pre-Raphaelite Works in The Importance of Being Earnest (Reese Witherspoon)-please click for Grace’s full post
Pre-Raphaelite Gowns in Movies (please click for Grace’s full post)
William Morris’ Guinevere, or La Belle Iseult in Snow White The Fairest of them All
Waterhouse’s The Soul of the Rose in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Burne-Jones Sidonia Von Bork in Sleepy Hollow. Grace also allowed me to share this image in my Sidonia Von Bork post.
Dorian Gray and the PRB (click to read full post, she has several screen caps of this delicious movie)
Leighton’s God Speed in Dorian Gray
Added November 10, 2010:
This production of The Woman in White was actually in transit to me (from Netflix) when someone mentioned it in the comments of this post! I was excited to watch it. If you’ve read the book, you should know that there are a number of changes. Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting Beata Beatrix is not only mentioned, but discussed. So is the exhumation of his wife Elizabeth Siddal.
Added January 11, 2011: My husband and I were watching an episode of Wire in the Blood on Netflix and I was surprised that Ophelia made an appearance. The episode “Sharp Compassion” is from season 2 of Wire in the Blood. It is a dark drama with adult subject matter and is based on the series of books by Val McDermid –I’ve read three of them and my husband and I enjoy the television adaptation. But beware, it can be a bit grisly. Wire in the Blood is a psychological crime drama whose main character, Dr. Tony Hill, immerses himself in a case to create a profile of the killer. In this episode, the painting of Ophelia sparks an idea about the positioning of the victims bodies — all of the victims are hospital patients killed by an “angel of mercy” type of killer.
Tony Hill then compares the crime scene photo to Ophelia. Although the painting plays an interesting part in the plot development, it is never mentioned and never enters into any dialogue.
Added February 28, 2010: On the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood Facebook Page, Alexandrion Drallipo kindly shared images discovered from The Uninvited. I’ve never seen The Uninvited, but the synopsis at IMDB says “Anna Rydell returns home to her sister (and best friend) Alex after a stint in a mental hospital, though her recovery is jeopardized thanks to her cruel stepmother, aloof father, and the presence of a ghost in their home.”
Once again, a big thank you to Alexandrion Drallipo for sharing this siting from Russian Dolls (2005). Brief synopsis via IMDB: ” Five years after their summer together in Barcelona, Xavier, William, Wendy, Martine and Isabelle reunite.” (Stars the always wonderful Audrey Tatou) You can see Leighton’s famous painting The Accolade in the jigsaw puzzle:
Added April 23, 2010:
My dear friend Grace, who also writes one of my favorite blogs, spotted Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Proserpine in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the latest Narnia movie:
Added July 14, 2010: Alexandrion Drallipo has sent me two screen caps from An Education, a movie that several people have recommended to me. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s languishing in my Netflix queue. I hope to watch it soon.
I also want to thank Alexandrion for sharing — I’m sorry it has taken so long for me to post them! The first image shows The Tree of Forgiveness by Burne-Jones in the background. And in the second we can see a painting I have quite strong feelings for: The Beguiling of Merlin (also Burne-Jones):
Added July 25, 2011 Kirsty Stonell Walker sent me a treasure trove of sightings! First, from the movie Cashback (recommended by our mutual friend Grace) IMDB describes Cashback : “After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild. “
The Bridesmaid by Millais is in the opening scene!
Kirsty’s next siting is from Me Without You. Here’s a description (again from IMDB): “Growing up in the 1970s on the Isle of Wight, Holly and Marina make a childhood pact to be friends forever. For the troubled, unpredictable Marina, with her seemingly glamorous father and her Valium-addicted mother, Holly stays the only constant in a life of divorcing parents, experimental drugs and fashionable self-destruction. Meanwhile, Holly buries herself in books out of feelings of frustration with her over-protective mother and a nagging insecurity around her beautiful and possessive best friend. She holds just one secret from Marina, her increasing passion for Marina’s brother Nat. As the years roll by, the girls experience everything life has to offer, sex, love, loss and rock ‘n roll. But eventually for Holly, a friendship which has never been equal gradually begins to feel like a trap. “
I would love to know who designed this set and what other projects they’ve worked on, because it’s filled with Pre-Raphaelite goodies in what looks like a pretty accurate portrayal of a 1970s teenage bedroom:
Notice the Alma Tadema painting just behind her.
In the left corner, we can see Rossetti’s Astarte Syriaca. And to the right, on the opposite wall, we see not one, but two Ophelias! One by Hughes, the other Millais.
On the door we can see Rossetti’s posthumous tribute to his wife, Beata Beatrix.
Pasted collage-style on her mirror are two images from Rossetti’s The Bower Meadow. I think the lower cut-out of Jane Morris is also Astarte Syriaca.
There is no Pre-Raphaelite painting in the screen cap above. But, come on! It’s very Pre-Raphaelite, reminiscent of a dryad?
On the door is The Golden Stair by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. To the right, on the wall, is another painting. There’s a glare, so I’m not entirely certain, but it looks like it could be from the Briar Rose/ Sleeping Beauty series (also Burne-Jones).
Just above her is Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs.
Below her, to the left, is Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott. Above her, to the right, is Rossetti’s Proserpine.
Just behind her is Ophelia by Arthur Hughes.
On the bulletin board, we see an assortment of Pre-Raphaelite postcards (Monna Vanna, The Beloved, Beata Beatrix and Proserpine).
Another siting for the Unexpected Pre-Raphaelite Sitings list! Alexandrion Drallipo has noticed a William Morris wallpaper pattern in the movie Nim’s Island. This is the Arbutus pattern, seen here in screen caps:
Added April 21, 2013:
Thank you to Alexandrion Drallipo for discovering these images. William Morris’ Larkspur wallpaper in Finding Neverland:
William Morris’ Willow pattern wallpaper in the TV series Justified:
William Morris Windrush wallpaper in Django Unchained:
Thank you to Lisa Gill for noticing The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse in The Following:
Twitter
I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
OOOwwww, that’s cool!
I possess Possession (funny play on words!) and I’ve seen My Fair Lady last week! Cool!
if I spot any other Pre-Raphaelite thingie in movies, i’ll tell you!! I probabaly did and forgot or just didn’t pay attention!
That’s a cool idea !!
Alexxx
Some excellent sleuthing! (Oh, and I agree with you, Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple. I saw the new Miss Marple on BBC and was rather taken aback. It just didn’t seem right–even if they hadn’t changed the stories).
You’re spot on about the fabric from My Fair Lady. It was printed in a variety of different colours on different backgrounds, but it’s Golden Lily Minor. They actually had a showing of My Fair Lady at Morris and Co. back in 2003 to show people the use of William Morris fabrics and wallpapers in the film!
Thank you Margaret! I thought I was right about the Golden Lily pattern, but hadn’t seen in it that color. So I questioned myself.
I did not know about the 2003 event with William Morris/My Fair Lady. How wonderful! I wonder if there is a record of it somewhere, or an article I can link to?
And I adore Joan Hickson! I was in junior high (perhaps 11 or 12) when I watched her. After seeing my favorite episode (Nemesis) I remember saving my money in order to buy a Miss Marple audio book on cassette just because Joan Hickson narrated it. I would listen to it every night as I went to sleep. I still have it. It has taken me years, but I have collected almost all of Agatha Christie’s books and I’m so excited that now my daughter wants to read them! The new Marple series upset me. I just don’t approve of such broad changes! The books are great mysteries just as they are.
Paul reminded me of another Morse episode that is heavy with Pre-Raphaelite works, and I found it today! So I’ll be posting more images soon.
Sitings from The Beautiful Necessity:
William Morris in the Spiderwick Chronicles
Pre-Raphaelite works in The Importance of Being Earnest (with Reese Witherspoon)
Pre-Raphaelite Gowns in Movies!
Thank you Grace, for letting me share these links!
Let’s not forget The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the 1981 movie starring Meryl Streep. So much of it is filled with Pre-Raphaelite imagery…and Streep could have been a Rossetti model if she had been around back then. The movie is well worth renting.
Also from The Beautiful Necessity:
http://thebeautifulnecessity.blogspot.com/2008/09/daniel-deronda.html
Some fabulous images from a BBC Miniseries, Daniel Deronda! Thank you Grace!
Saturday Night Live used to have large blow-ups of Pre-raphaelite paintings behind their house band. My apologies for not finding an image to share. Maybe someone else has one.
Just finished watching the recent BBC broadcast (on a borrowed DVD) of The Victorians. Wonderful! You even get to visit the workhouses and some untouched Victorian-era homes. It delves into both the romantic and the seamy side of Victorian life in just about all aspects. Anyway, my point is, episode 4 has quite a lot of Pre-Raphaelite material.
The drawing to the right of the portrait of Lizzie Siddall is, if I’m not mistaken, a drawing of Jane Morris also by Rossetti
Just saw the film “An Education” at my local art cinema theater. It’s set in London in the early 1960s … and has a couple of major references to the Pre-Raphs, particularly Edward Burne-Jones. Four star movie, but not for the kids.
Here’s Burne-Jones The Tree of Forgiveness
http://www.refinery29.com/static/bin/entry/69b/x/23268/an-education-inspiration.jpg
Is that another one behind her? I don’t know, looks like it!
http://www.refinery29.com/static/bin/entry/69b/x/23268/an-education-inspiration.jpg
thanks ! I thoroughly enjoyed your site – keep up the good work
Recently watched The Thomas Crown Affair on network tv and one painting in his impressive collection was a Burne Jones! I don’t own it on DVD, or I’d screen-cap and give the exact work. Of course, Renee Russo is very Pre-Raphaelite looking too.
Thank you! It has been years since I’ve seen that movie, I’ll have to watch it again so I can include it here!
YES!
That’s The Mirror Of Venus !
My screencap out of a Youtube video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgTfWzseHns&feature=related at 2:13!
http://i51.tinypic.com/2rzs7s3.png
And wouldn’t that be another one? It looks like it could be but I don’t know which!
http://www.hotflick.net/flicks/1999_The_Thomas_Crown_Affair/999TCA_Rene_Russo_092.jpg
It’s very interesting post. Thank you. I admire your perceptiveness.
“I think it is Morris’s Golden Lily Minor pattern. I may be mistaken about the name”
I also think that this pattern is the Golden Lily:
http://www.grahamsandersoninteriors.com/acatalog/morris_readymade_curtains.html
http://www.historicstyle.com/williammorris/wallpapers/goldenlily.html
Dorian Gray.
Leighton’s God Speed hangs on the wall in Sybil Vane’s dressing room. I have a screen cap here:
http://medievalmuse-arteffex.blogspot.com/2010/09/dorian-gray-and-prb.html
There are also Rossetti paintings in the 2005 Woman in White.
Oh my! You have no idea how serendipitous your comment is! The Woman in White version you referred to is the next movie in my Netflix Queue and I will be watching it tomorrow night! Thanks for telling me, I’ll be on the lookout!
If I’m thinking of the right one, that is. I hope it is!
To this extremely interesting list, I’d like to add the french film, Les Soeurs Bronte by Techiné (1979). There is no specific PR painting but Branwell’s love interest, Lyda Robinson, is portrayed with long flowing red hair, which is very similar to the preraphealite style. You can check out this clip from 2:05
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDrrF7pSInM&feature=related
Thank you for sharing the video — she is a stunner indeed!
I loved this version of Woman in White!! What really jolts my memory is that paisley shawl the lady is wearing…if my visual memory is correct, the character of Lizzie wears something very similar in Desperate Romantics.
Lisa, good catch! Yes she does!
I enjoyed it too. I remember it being on Masterpiece Theater, but at the time I didn’t see it all. I can’t remember perfectly, but either I was still pregnant with my son Donovan or I had just given birth. Either way, I was a bit distracted!
I’ve fallen in deep love with Netflix. It’s making it so easy to find and watch movies and shows that I might not otherwise see.
I’m going to Netflix this as I’ve not seen it in years and have also forgotten the subtle details. Thanks so much for bringing it the attention it deserves.
Herbert James Draper’s ‘Ulysses and the Sirens’ shows up (reversed and altered) in the movie Coraline, during the stage show of Miss Spinks and Miss Forcible.
Is that the moment?
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2009/02/medium_venus.jpg
Because is it a mix with Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, I think, no?
http://io9.com/#!5146706/solving-coralines-naked-old-lady-problem
Waterhouse’s ‘I Am Half-Sick of Shadows’ appears in the background of an art gallery in season 1 of Queer As Folk, ostensibly set in Pittsburgh, though the real painting is in Toronto.
Here’s the complete first season of Queer as Folk on screencaps!
http://www.qafcaps.com/gallery/index.php?cat=11&page=1
If you could find the exact episode, that’d be neat!
I’m sneaking through all of this, but I am walking as if blind!
Tess, I’ve seen Coraline so I’m shocked that I missed it! I’ll have to watch it again and see if I can get a screen cap.
I’ve never seen an episode of Queer As Folk, I’ll have to give that a gander as well.
Thanks for bringing these to my attention!
See Zach Braff trying on a shirt matching the William Morris paper in his parents’ bathroom in the film Garden State (“camouflage” or “wallpaper shirt” ?).
http://www.leavemethewhite.com/caps/albums/movies/gardenstate/Garden_State_035.jpg
In the 1960′s soap opera Dark Shadows, at least two paintings by Millais appear on the walls of the great house of Collinwood. In David’s room, there is a print of The Boyhood of Raleigh and in another room A Huguenot. How are you doing the screen caps in case I want to try to screen cap scenes featuring the paintings?
To make a screen cap, I pause the movie and hit the print screen button (PRTSC SYSRQ) which copies the image on my keyboard. Then I open it in Photoshop to resize it. Here’s a pretty handy page that explains how to create screen caps from different platforms.
I’m excited to hear about Dark Shadows. I’ve only ever seen a few episodes of the original series, but I watched the complete revival series with my daughter last fall. She’s fourteen and loved it. I had happened upon a large set of vintage Dark Shadows books and she’s enjoyed reading them.
Edouard Bisson isn’t a Pre-Raphaelite painter, but a French romantic/neoclassical painter from the Edwardian era. Still, he created lovely paintings of vaguely mythological or allegorical ladies with flowing hair and draperies. His painting Winter (1904) appears in the movie Angel Heart (1987), on the wall of Margaret Krusemark’s home.
Don’t forget those siting in THE UNINVITED screencaps I sent you on Facebook!
Oh goodness! I’m so terribly sorry that I neglected to add them! I’ve added them now, with a link to your lovely blog as well!
No worries
and thanks!! I love your website!
There is what looks like a print of The Light of the World in, of all things, episode five of Blackadder Goes Forth over one of the hospital beds.
Hi
for years in my family theres been talk of a connection with lizzie
my mothers maiden name was Siddall they are from Earl Masrshall rd in sheffield the girls in the family all look a litle like lizzie
regards Jon
British singer Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine is a dead ringer for Elizabeth Siddle dont you think, check out her new album cover i lthink she’s defo styling herself on Pre Raphaelite principles!
Totally! And there’s even a promo pic of Florence for her first album Lungs that has her on a bed and a portrait of Lizzie behind on the wall!
I just love spotting William Morris wallpaper in movies and TV series. My latest was a Netflix DVD of “The Railway Children” done in 2000 with Jemina Roper. In the beginning in the house in London there is “Willow” or Willow Bough” in one room and “Golden Lily” in another.
Enjoyed reading your site very much. Thanks for sharing.
In the new Pixar “BRAVE”, Merida wears one dress based on Waterhouse’s Lady Clare, and another like his version of Ophelia where she wears white with gold embroidery and gems. Oh, and how about the hair! Very Amy Manson Desperate Romantics.
I’ve just remembered a few more:
A scene in vamp movie “Queen of the Damned” recreates the pose from “The Death of Chatterton”, and windows like the ones in Chatterton feature in the first Robert Downey Junior Sherlock Holmes. And Anthony Hopkins strikes the pose of the long-lost lover from “Too Late” in Howards End.
I just saw another one in My Fair Lady – Millais’ Isabella with the pot of basil appears in the room where Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering are getting ready for the Embassy Ball. It’s just behind the Professor.
My bad – it was Holman Hunt, not Millais. That’s what comes of writing post comments while trying not to miss any of the film.
THANK YOU! You just gave me an excuse to watch My Fair Lady again
In Lark Rise to Candleford there’s Rossetti’s Bower Meadow in Timmin’s cottage, amongst other pictures of artistic kind.
One of my students shared this with me since I had talked about this in class.
A murderer recreates Millais’ Ophelia in the Eleventh Victim
http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/the-eleventh-victim/video/death-of-ophelia