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Elizabeth Siddal seated at an easel, painting

Maker

(artist)
1828-1882

Formerly attributed to
Valentine Cameron Prinsep (artist)
1838-1904

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1854 - 1855

Medium

graphite on wove paper (perhaps some erasure in the hair line)

Dimensions

Height: 17.7 cm
Width: 11.8 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3065

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

A young woman sits before an easel, sketching the outlines of a figure, although it is unclear whether the implement she uses is a pencil or a paintbrush. Her right hand rests on a mahl stick, a tool once commonly used by artists to steady their hands as they worked. Fine, delicate graphite lines delineate her profile and her raised hand, with heavier, darker strokes defining the folds and outlines of the gathered waist and bell-shaped sleeves of her simple dress. Her lowered eyelids, erect posture and calm, yet focused expression suggest how deeply engaged she is in her work. This is Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1861), a proficient artist and poet. Best known today as the model and eventual wife of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Siddal was apparently first spotted working in a milliner’s shop in Leicester Square. Siddal suffered from frequent ill health which was likely exacerbated by Rossetti’s noncommittal attitude toward their relationship. She died very young, soon after the stillbirth of their child, from an overdose of laudanum, an opiate then prescribed indiscriminately to treat numerous illnesses. Rossetti drew her almost obsessively, particularly during the mid 1850s, when this drawing is thought to have been made. Most of his portraits show her looking pale and exhausted; this sensitively observed drawing is unusual in depicting her as a working artist. Siddal’s rapt concentration suggests that her work was a source of strength, however fleeting.

Provenance

given by the artist to Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904); given by Colnaghi (London) to Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), ca. 1939-1940; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Rosetti's Portraits, Holburne Museum, Bath, 24/09/2021-09/01/2022

Courtauld Connects Regional Programme: The Artful Line: Drawings from the Harris collection and The Courtauld Gallery, The Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, 15/02/2020-18/10/2020

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011 ...More

Rossetti's Portraits of Elizabeth Siddal, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery & Birmingham & England, 01/05/1991-07/07/1991

Rossetti's Portraits of Elizabeth Siddal, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 05/03/1991-28/04/1991

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Painter and Poet, Royal Academy of Arts, London / Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1973 ...Less

Literature

Broussine, Sylvie, and Christopher Newall, Rossetti's Portraits, The Holbourne Museum, Bath
pp. 70, 85
ill. on p. 24

Rosetti's Portraits, Holburne Museum, Bath, 24 Sept. 2021 - 9 Jan. 2022
cat. no. 14
fig. 14 on p. 24

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 8
ill. on p. 60 ...More

Petherbridge, Deanna, The primacy of drawing: histories and theories of practice, New Haven 2010
cat. no. pl. 239
pp. 333-34
ill. on p. 333

Rossetti's Portraits of Elizabeth Siddal: a catalogue of the drawings and watercolours, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1991
no. 33
Fig. p. repr.

Grieve, A.I., The art of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: watercolours and drawings of 1850-1855, Norwich, 1978
Fig. p. 77

Surtees, Virginia, The paintings and drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): a catalogue raisonne, London, 1971
App. no. 14 on p. 235

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 42 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Verso: centre, graphite, large: "7".

Collector's mark: none.

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