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25th July 2022
Born on this day in 1829, Elizabeth Siddal was a well known English artist, poet and Pre-Raphaelite model. She remains quite a mysterious Pre-Raphaelite woman, immortalised in many famous paintings, but personally it doesn’t feel like as much is known about her. Perhaps most famously, she modelled for Ophelia, by John Everett Millais, which now sits in the Tate in London.
For Ophelia, she modelled by floating in a bath full of water, whilst Millais painted her throughout the winter. Oil lamps heated the water from below the bath, one time the lamps went out and the water in the winter went icy cold. She didn’t tell Millais and he didn’t notice as he was too consumed in his art. Millais ended up paying for her medical bills after her father threatened legal action after she contracted pneumonia due to it.
You can see lots of her other modelling, particularly for husband Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He loved painting her so much that she was almost exclusively the only model he used. He also stopped her modelling for his friends within the Brotherhood. It’s reported that the amount of paintings he did of her are within the thousands, that was to the extend he found her such a muse.
Elizabeth Siddal was the daughter of a Sheffield cutler and shopkeeper who had moved to London with family. She was apparently working in a milliner’s shop when she was discovered by Walter Deverell. Deverell was born in America and was moved back to England with family aged 2 years old. He went to the Royal Academy Schools where he met Rossetti, with whom he shared a studio in 1851. The Pre-Raphaelites had been founded a few years before in 1848, under Rossetti’s influence he showed some incidence of the movement, but retained features of earlier genres too.
Deverell later described Elizabeth Siddal as “magnificently tall, with a lovely figure, and a face of the most delicate and finished modelling … she has grey eyes, and her hair is like dazzling copper, and shimmers with luster.”
Elizabeth Siddal married Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1860 in Hastings. They met in 1849, and he seemed reluctant to marry her for years, perhaps due to her working class upbringing, but either way it’s known his sisters heavily criticised her. Siddal worried he was reluctant to the marriage as he looked for a younger muse. They did eventually marry and they are known to have been even more in love following the marriage. Nicknames are said to have included ”guggums” ”gug” and Rossetti called Lizzie ”Dove.”
Rossetti didn’t just create art inspired by her but poems too. The poem A Last Confession is about his love for her and he describes her eyes, ”as of the sea and sky on a grey day.”
Elizabeth Siddal died young on the 11 February 1862. There’s arguments for how she died, some say she was suffering even on her wedding day two years before as she had to be carried to the church, which could have been tuberculosis or an intestinal disorder, others say she was anorexic and others believe she was an addict for laudanum. It’s not clear and they didn’t have the medicines we have today nor the diagnosis so we will never fully know. It is clear that the many indiscretions Rossetti took in their marriage and coupled with a heartbreaking birth of a stillborn daughter in 1861, both had a huge and profound affect on her and she was known to be severely depressed and had access to laudanum.
Years after she passed, Rossetti published a collection of sonnets, The House of Life, one is called “Without her” and has some beautiful lines, including, “Without her? Tears, ah me! For love’s good grace, and cold forgetfulness of night or day.”
We hope you liked this blog about Elizabeth Siddal, be sure to keep up to date on all our blogs and Pre-Raphaelites on our Instagram.
Posted in News by Laura
Us 🤝 simple napkin folding 🎀
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A really simple napkin fold for your Easter table! 🐣 We used a napkin ring but you could use ribbon or twine, whatever you’ve got! 🐰
Just fold the napkin into a triangle and roll up from the point until you can fold it in half to make the ears 🐇 You could put a little creme egg in there as an extra treat 🤎
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Hopping into Easter week with a fab 10% off our website, just use code: EASTER on our website 🐣
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Have you seen our new remnants and bundle section on our website? 🪡 Perfect for quilting, sewing and crafting, they’re all in varying sizes and we’ll keep it constantly updated 🧵
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Layering florals on florals this Spring 🪻🌷
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The start of the Easter tablescapes this weekend 🐣 We cant resist a little rabbit napkin, so easy and so effective we can post a reel on how to do the napkin fold! 🐰 This is our pvc fabric in William Morris Brother Rabbit red which is perfect for on the table as it simply wipes clean so isn’t an issue for any spills 🧼
We know that seasonal tablescapes whilst looking amazing can often seem really expensive on Instagram so we wanted to prove that with a simple napkin fold and a few little inexpensive decor bits it can be wonderfully seasonal yet affordable and used every year - the carrots are from @poundland and the cute little sheep are from @sainsburys 🐑
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A gorgeous spring day today spent in the garden, anyone else unable to spend a day without a pot of mini eggs nearby? 🐣 Our pvc fabric is perfect for garden tables, a simple wipe clean and it’s ready for outdoor meals - just make sure to not leave it outside in the rain! ☔️☀️ On the table today is our William Morris Compton pvc, a year- round fave of ours 🤎
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Spring has truly sprung this week and we’re looking forward to Easter 🐣 Our William Morris Daisy was looking gorgeous on the table with a little Easter treat 🐰
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One of the crafters among us couldn’t help but steal some of our new designs from work to create a gorgeous quilted bag from all our original designs to take to Chicago with them on holiday 🤍 For all of us back home in Yorkshire we’re a little jealous seeing all the holiday snaps of the bag round the city! ✨ All these designs are now available on our website 🥰
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It’s back in stock!! 🍓 Our cotton Strawberry Thief blue licensed William Morris design is now back in stock - and digitally printed 🌿 We hope you can tell how crisp the design is from this video, the details within the design are so clear in the digital print which is fabulous becuase there’s so many beautiful details within all Morris designs 🎨
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The colours of Compton 😍 did you know some of our designs are now digitally printed? 🤎 digital print gives top quality printing design with a really crisp finish that brings to life the whole design and its details, of course, we’re still printing in the UK 🇬🇧
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Pack an order with us of our new quilting fabrics 🌿 These are all our exclusive designs that are now available on our website, and each beautiful design has been faithfully resorted from our French archive, we wonder what they’ll be made into 🤍
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A tea towel hanging in the kitchen, bringing floral magic easily into the home 🌿 Can you believe William Morris designed Willow Bough in 1887? It’s such a timeless design we love imagining how many people throughout the years have chosen to have it decorating their homes 🤍
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Use code: birthday for 20% off our entire website 🌿 Includes our fabulous fabric by the half metre, tablewear & kitchenware 🤍
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We’re excited to announce our new range of fabrics, perfect for quilting 🪡 they are all from our exclusive French archive which dates from the late 1800s-early 1900s ⚜️ With a new range we were chatting about what to name each design, so as a female founded and run business, we decided to name them after some important women in our lives 🤍 We’re digitally printing this fabric so it’s amazing quality, but there’s limited stock of each design so let us know which designs you love ☺️
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Waiting patiently for peony season… 🫶🏻
On the table; our William Morris Willow Bough 🌿
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Why wouldn’t we celebrate William Morris’ birthday with one of our biggest sales of the year! Hurry, it’s tonight and tomorrow only, take 20% off everything on our website with code; BIRTHDAY 🌿
Born on this day in 1834, William Morris was an incredible talent. His designs are as timeless and popular today as ever, so long after they were designed 🎨 He also was a poet, writer and socialist activist who was involved in the arts and crafts movement and worked hard to keep traditional British textiles, he opened his own mill, Merton Abbey Mills 🌿 there’s so many interesting aspects of his life that he seemed to live many lives at once, when you’re that talented it must be hard to pick just one passion! 🌿 Happy Birthday William, thank you for all the stunning designs we print here in the UK just as he was passionate about all those years ago! 🇬🇧
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Happy first day of Spring 🌷what’s your favourite thing about spring? 🌱 Ours is of course all the stunning flowers blooming all around us 🪴 To get 15% off our website to bring some florals indoors, use code; SPRING at checkout on our website 🤍
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Our fat quarters are ideal for quilting or patchwork projects, in all our licensed William Morris designs we also sell them in bundles 🌿 Our website has 15% off everything at the moment with code; SPRING 🌷
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A bit of a different one today, and we’re very amateur so don’t zoom in on our planting too much, but isn’t spring lovely tidying up the greenhouse ready to plant in? 🌱 Next up is getting some tomato plants and might even take on a dahlia or two! 🤍 If you’re a gardener and know how to keep this grape vine alive, do let us know how 😂
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