Elizabeth Siddal

Siddal c. 1860 (unknown photographer).

Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862) was an English artists' model, poet and artist.
She was painted and drawn extensively by artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais (including his notable 1852 painting Ophelia) and her husband, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She featured prominently in Rossetti's early paintings of women.

While posing for Millais' Ophelia in 1852 ( www.artsymps.com/artsymptom/11… ), Siddal floated in a bathtub full of water to represent the drowning Ophelia. Millais painted daily into the winter putting lamps under the tub to warm the water. On one occasion the lamps went out and the water became icy cold. Millais, absorbed by his painting and did not notice and Siddal did not complain. After this she became very ill with a severe cold or pneumonia. Her father held Millais responsible, and under the threat of legal action, Millais paid her doctor's bills. It was thought that she suffered from tuberculosis, but some historians believe an intestinal disorder was more likely. Others have suggested she might have been anorexic while others attribute her poor health to an addiction to laudanum or a combination of ailments.

After becoming engaged to Rossetti, Siddal began to study with him. In contrast to Rossetti's idealized paintings, Siddal's were harsh. Rossetti drew countless sketches and painted and repainted her. His depictions show a beauty. Her self-portrait shows much about the subject, but certainly not the floating beauty that Rossetti painted and is historically significant because it shows, through her own eyes, a beauty who was idealized by so many famous artists. In 1855, art critic John Ruskin began to subsidize her career and paid £150 per year in exchange for all the drawings and paintings she produced. She produced many sketches and watercolours but only a single oil painting. Her sketches are laid out in a fashion similar to Pre-Rapaelite compositions illustrating Arthurian legend and other idealized medieval themes. Ruskin admonished Rossetti in his letters for not marrying Siddal and giving her security. During this period Siddal began to write poetry, often with dark themes about lost love or the impossibility of true love.

Siddal overdosed on laudanum in the early months of 1862. Rossetti discovered her unconscious and dying in bed after having had dinner with her and his friend Algernon Charles Swinburne. After taking Siddal home, Rossetti attended his usual teaching job at the Working Men's College. Once Rossetti returned home and found Siddal he was already unable to revive her and he called for a doctor, who claimed to be unable to save her, upon which Rossetti sent for another three doctors. A stomach pump was used, but to no avail. She died at 7.20 AM on February 11, 1862 at their home at 14 Chatham Place, now demolished and covered by Blackfriars Station. Although her death was ruled accidental by the coroner, there are suggestions that Rossetti found a suicide note. Consumed with grief and guilt Rossetti went to see Ford Madox Brown who is supposed to have instructed him to burn the note – under the law at the time suicide was both illegal and immoral and would have brought a scandal on the family, and suicide would bar Siddal from a Christian burial.