Lizzie Siddal
Page 22
57. Miss Pusey’s father was the Anglican priest Edward Bouverie Pusey, Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, Canon of Christ Church and a key figure in the Oxford Movement. This group desired to bring about reform in the Anglican Church, including introducing more “High Church” elements into the service. These were controversially perceived as being more closely allied to the Catholic mass than to a Protestant service. Pusey was also instrumental in the creation of the first Anglican sisterhood – interestingly, Maria Rossetti became an Anglican nun in the 1870s, joining the All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor. Pusey wrote several prominent tracts, including one on the importance of fasting. This latter was published unusually under his name – most were anonymous – and led to a movement known (often derogatively) as “Puseyism”.
58. Effie Millais was not accepted by the upper echelons of society because she had been married before and had had that union ignominiously dissolved. Her second husband was a favourite with Queen Victoria, from whom he accepted a knighthood in 1885, but Victoria would not tolerate the idea of accepting Effie. Even Victoria’s own children were unsuccessful in persuading her to relent. In 1896, when Millais was dying, the Queen sent a messenger to his home to ask if there was anything she could do. Millais sent him back with a scrawled message, asking the Queen to receive his wife. Queen Victoria was finally defeated and agreed to admit Effie into her presence. The famed meeting took place in early July; Millais died on August 13, his final wish granted.
59. Nolly Madox Brown was born in December 1854. He inherited his father’s talent and had dreams of being an artist; sadly, he died at the age of 19 from blood poisoning.
60. The poem and its legend inspired several artists, most notably Edward Burne-Jones, who completed his painting King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid in 1884.
61. A famous murderer.
62. Morris held regular Socialism meetings at his home, Kelmscott House, on the river in Hammersmith. (Part of Kelmscott House is now open to the public.) He was a fervent believer in the Socialist movement. On one occasion he was arrested for his beliefs and he was a prominent figure in the 1887 demonstration in Trafalgar Square, the event that became known as “Bloody Sunday” after three demonstrators were killed and 200 maimed or injured by over-zealous police. When Edward Burne-Jones received his title, he was too nervous to tell Morris, his oldest friend, about the honour. Even though Morris had dined with the Burne-Joneses the night before the ceremony, he had left their home in ignorance and found out about Ned’s knighthood when he read about it in the newspaper.
63. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott”
64. The late-Victorian artist Frank Dicksee (1853–1928), who was strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, painted what has become probably the most famous pictorial image of “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” (undated). In his picture, the beautiful woman of the title has flaming red hair, in obvious homage to Lizzie Siddal.
65. Rossetti returned twice to the theme of How They Met Themselves, painting two watercolour versions of the picture in 1861 and 1864.
66. Jane Morris, who also became a perpetual invalid, regularly visited the German spa at Ems, in the Rhineland. In 1869 Rossetti sketched a cartoon of Janey looking miserable in a spa bathtub, drinking a glass of spa water, with William sitting beside her reading aloud from The Earthly Paradise. It was entitled The Ms at Ems.
67. In 1984, the Tate Gallery in London held an exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art. Once again, Lizzie was the only woman whose works were included.
68. Ruskin is referring to Lizzie’s Clerk Saunders, which they had great hopes for at the 1857 exhibition.
69. Blue John is a semi-precious stone, veined in varying hues of blue, from the very palest hint of colour through to a deep, inky-dark indigo. It is found exclusively in the mines in Castleton.
70. Ruskin first visited Derbyshire at the age of 10, when he travelled there with his parents and was inspired to draw the county’s dramatic scenes.
71. In 1866, the site of St Pancras cemetery was developed to become a grand railway station, complete with hotel. There was a public outcry as many of the graves were just weeks old and passers-by claimed to have seen bones and even a shining head of hair as the site was being made ready for the station’s foundations. The architect, A.W. Blomfield, had a young assistant by the name of Thomas Hardy, whose job it was to oversee the relocation and reburials of the desecrated graves. Hardy was not yet known for the books that would make his name famous, but he was so affected by the St Pancras incident that he wrote two poems about it.
72. Sheffield Local Studies Library has a file of newspaper cuttings about Lizzie. They consist largely of letters to local papers, written by people who had met her, or had relatives who had met her, when she spent time in Sheffield. One letter was sent in by “A.S. of Ashdell Road”, a fellow student at the School of Art. Several decades after Lizzie’s death, “A.S.” was moved to write: “It was a slight acquaintance I had with her, but it made a lasting impression on my memory.”
73. Howell worked as Ruskin’s secretary for over a decade, until his dismissal in 1870. In 1872 he began working for Rossetti.
74. Fanny Cornforth is usually dismissed as a prostitute Rossetti picked up on the street, but recent research is strongly suggestive that she was never a prostitute.
75. In 1883, the Matlock Bath Hydro was opened to the general public. Every day 600,000 gallons of natural thermal spring water rushed through the purpose-built pools, requiring no heating and minimal maintenance. Today the hydro’s pools are still in use as part of the town’s aquarium. The gout-ridden old colonels and delicate young ladies of yesteryear have been replaced by ornamental fish, terrapins and piranhas.
76. John Smedley also built the typically Victorian folly Riber Castle, which stands on a hill outside the town and overlooks Matlock; the castle is also easily visible from the hydropathic centre.
77. Today Smedley’s hydropathic centre houses the offices of Derbyshire County Council, near the appropriately named Smedley Street.
78. The murals have since been renovated but it is impossible to recreate the brilliant colours the artists used.
79. Coventry Patmore, “The Angel in the House”.
80. Timothy Hughes was also a model and was painted by Rossetti as the young “David as Shepherd” in the left side panel of the Llandaff Cathedral triptych. William Morris modelled for the more noble “David as King” (the right side panel) and, after rejecting his preliminary drawings of Ruth Herbert as the Virgin, Rossetti asked Janey to be the model for Mary in the middle panel, which depicted the Nativity (a linking scene emphasizing King David being Jesus’s ancestor).
81. Rossetti had a passion for animals, although his love for them was not matched by an understanding of how best to look after them. After Lizzie’s death he moved into a house in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where he proceeded to introduce all manner of animals, some meant to be domestic and others intended to live in the wild – and often not reared to live in the UK. He had a lifelong passion for wombats, of which he bought a couple; he also possessed an armadillo, a couple of kangaroos, a raccoon, a dormouse and a peacock. These unfortunate animals – and others – appeared randomly, and often expired with equal rapidity.
82. William Rossetti, who later wrote a description of Lizzie’s physical appearance, described her eyes as greenish-blue. His full description of her reads: “a most beautiful creature, with an air between dignity and sweetness, mixed with something which exceeded modest self-respect, and partook of disdainful reserve; tall, finely-formed, with a lofty neck, and regular somewhat uncommon features, greenish-blue sparkling eyes, large perfect eyelids, brilliant complexion, and a lavish heavy wealth of coppery-golden hair.”
83. The version of Regina Cordium for which Lizzie Rossetti was the model is now on display in the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
84. By the end of his life, Rossetti’s obsession with buying rich materials to use as costumes had become a joke with his friends,
as he had so many lengths of fabric he was unable to store it all. In the 1920s Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) published a cartoon in which he had sketched Rossetti surrounded by mountains of cloth attempting to persuade a dour, unimaginatively clad Christina into having a dress made up from a length of it. Although Beerbohm was not born until a decade after Lizzie’s death, he was well acquainted with the popular stories of the Pre-Raphaelites, in particular with the story of Dante and Lizzie Rossetti.
85. After her death, the bird was moved to Albany Street to be cared for by her sisters-in-law.
86. Rossetti’s home in Cheyne Walk was well known for his vast collection of the china and caricatures of him often include this motif; Whistler was also an enthusiastic collector, as was William Morris. At the Morrises’ Red House, one of the few aspects of the décor that was not brand new were the blue-and-white Delft tiles used to decorate some of the fireplaces.
87. Helen Rossetti Angeli wrote of their friendship: “Swinburne’s devotion to Lizzie would appear to be the only deeply felt platonic attachment of his life … Of all her husband’s friends he was the one she liked best and with whom she felt most at home … Swinburne elicited more of her real thoughts and personality than Gabriel’s other friends or his family.”
88. Philip Webb was an architect and designer who became an integral part of the Arts and Crafts movement. He first met William Morris in 1856, when they were working together at the architectural practice, G. E. Street. In 1858 Webb set up his own practice specializing in country residences; Morris was one of his first clients, with his commission for the Red House. A few years later Webb joined Morris’s new company, Morris & Co., where he worked as a designer, overseeing amongst other things the famous Morris & Co. stained glass. The two men also collaborated in the creation of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
89. Today Red House is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.
90. Unfortunately most of Lizzie’s work on the Red House murals has been lost due to the artists’ lack of awareness about painting murals – the group had learnt some lessons from the Oxford Union mistakes, but not enough to prevent similar problems at Red House. There is, however, a Philip Webb cabinet, now in the entrance hall, on which Morris painted a scene from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur for which Lizzie was one of the models. The features of Morris, Janey, Ned and Georgie are also discernible in the figures. Lizzie can also be seen in Burne-Jones’s Sir Degrevaunt murals in the drawing room and her features can be perceived in the female figure in Burne-Jones’s drawing The Backgammon Players (1861), the background of which was taken from the garden of Red House.
91. In the end, it was this four-hour journey from London – almost impossible when attempted as a commute – which brought the parties at Red House to an end. In November 1865 the Morrises were very reluctantly forced to sell their idyllically secluded home and return to London, where William could concentrate on his newly founded business, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company (later known as Morris & Co.).
92. It was Barbara Leigh Smith’s cousin, Florence Nightingale, who helped to discover the causes of puerperal fever. She was shocked to discover that, despite centuries of a horrific percentage of new mothers contracting it, no research had ever been carried out. She insisted the research be undertaken and commissioned a study into the illness. The fever was largely caused by frighteningly unsanitary hospital conditions.
93. Janey Morris had just given birth to her and William’s first daughter, Jenny.
94. Mrs John Dalrymple was the aunt of Valentine Prinsep and sister to Mrs Prinsep, who so attentively nursed Edward Burne-Jones through his worrying illness. The Prinseps lived in Little Holland House, Holland Park, very close to Frederic, Lord Leighton, G.F. Watts and other members of the artistic milieu known as The Holland Park Circle. They were important connections for the Pre-Raphaelites.
95. Recent research has shown that the partners of postnatally depressed women develop an increased tendency to depression themselves. Rossetti suffered from severe depression in the final years of his life.
96. When Arthur Madox Brown died, Ford was in such dire financial straits – having footed the bill for the 1857 salon and not yet been paid back by Lizzie, Rossetti, Millais or any of the other exhibitors – that he could not afford to pay for his baby’s funeral. He had turned to Plint who had given him the money.
97. Ellen Heaton was a friend of the Brownings, Millais, Ruskin and Christina Rossetti, as well as being Dante Rossetti’s patron. She and Christina corresponded for almost three decades. Ellen, who did not marry, became a woman of independent wealth after the deaths of her parents. She was acquainted with Rossetti’s ill-fated patron Thomas Plint.
98. One of the most apparent signs of postnatal depression is a feeling of intense tiredness that worsens throughout the day.
99. The restaurant and the hotel it was attached to no longer exist.
100. Dante Rossetti and, after his death, William Rossetti, continued making payments to the Siddall brothers for many years. It has been suggested this was “guilt” money, because her family realized it was suicide and Rossetti had covered it up. It is more likely, however, to have been a genuine desire on the part of Rossetti to carry out Lizzie’s last request.
101. How advanced Lizzie’s pregnancy was is unrecorded.
102. Lucy Madox Brown was a frequent visitor to Albany Street in 1862, as at this time she was being educated by Maria and Christina and had come to be viewed as one of the family. She later recalled the “sense of relief” felt by Dante’s family when the news of Lizzie’s death was broken to them.
103. It is uncertain when Rossetti had formed the impression that Lizzie had a weak heart or who had made the diagnosis.
104. That the coroner chose to believe it was an accident is due partly to the relatively common occurrence of accidental deaths from laudanum at the time. The year after Lizzie committed suicide, there were 80 recorded deaths from laudanum or syrup of poppies and in 1864 there were 95 such deaths in Britain. These figures do not include deaths from all other forms of opiate.
105. It is not possible to see Lizzie’s grave; unfortunately, visitors to the Western Cemetery are allowed in only on a guided tour, which does not include seeing the Rossetti family plot.
106. Now in the Tate Britain, in London.
107. Rossetti made several replicas of Beata Beatrix in watercolour and chalk and, towards the end of his life, began a second oil painting, in which the bird flying to Beatrice became a white dove carrying a red poppy. The original was sold to the collector and patron William Graham, who paid Rossetti the princely sum of 900 guineas.
108. Helen Rossetti Angeli was the daughter of William Rossetti and his wife, Lucy Madox Brown (Ford Madox Brown’s daughter by his first wife, Lizzy). She was the person who finally laid to rest rumours about Lizzie’s death; in her 1949 biography of Rossetti she revealed the existence of a suicide note, finally exonerating Rossetti from his unwilling role as potential murderer.
Index
A
Acland, Dr Henry Wentworth ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
addiction ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16, ref 17
see also chloral; laudanum
Algeria ref 1, ref 2
Alighieri, Dante ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Allingham, William ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5
American Exhibition of British Art ref 1
“Angel in the House, The” ref 1
April Love ref 1, ref 2
artists’ commune ref 1, ref 2
see also Red House
“At Last” ref 1
B
Backgammon Players, The ref 1
Bateman, Edward Latrobe ref 1, ref 2
Bath ref 1
Beata Beatrix ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Beatrice Meeting Dante at a Marriage Feast, Denies Him her
Salutation ref 1
Before The Battle see Lady Affixing a Pennant to a Knight’s Lance
Bell Scott, William ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6
Bentley, George ref 1
birth ref 1, ref 2
Bocca Baciata ref 1, ref 2
Boyce, George ref 1
Brett, John ref 1
Brighton ref 1
Browning, Robert ref 1, ref 2, ref 3
Burden, Jane ref 1, ref 2, ref 3; see also Morris, Jane(y)
Burne-Jones, Edward (Ned) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16
Burne-Jones, Georgiana (née Macdonald) ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15
Byron, Lord ref 1
C
Chatham Place ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8, ref 9, ref 10, ref 11, ref 12, ref 13, ref 14, ref 15, ref 16
Chaucer, Godfrey ref 1
chloral ref 1
Clerk Saunders ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Colleen Bawn ref 1
Collins, Charles Allston ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4
Collinson, James ref 1, ref 2
Combe, Thomas ref 1
contraception ref 1
Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Priest from the Persecution of the Druids, A ref 1, ref 2
Cornforth, Fanny ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5, ref 6, ref 7, ref 8
Cox, Sarah see Cornforth, Fanny
Crimean War ref 1, ref 2
Critic ref 1
Crossdaggers see Hope Hall
D
death ref 1
exhumation ref 1
funeral ref 1
inquest into ref 1
reactions to ref 1
rumours after ref 1
see also suicide
depresssion ref 1, ref 2, ref 3, ref 4, ref 5