Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal was an English artist, poet, and muse, renowned for her connection to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) and her tumultuous relationship with poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Born into a family with gentry roots but raised in modest circumstances, Siddal began her career as a milliner before being discovered by Deverell, a PRB painter, in 1850. Her striking beauty led her to become the favored model for the Brotherhood, but she sought to establish her identity as an artist and poet. Despite her early success in painting, Siddal faced serious health challenges starting in 1854, which shifted her focus toward poetry.
Though she wrote extensively, completing fifteen poems, none were published during her lifetime. Siddal's personal life was marked by tragedy, including a stillborn daughter and struggles with depression, exacerbated by her reliance on laudanum. Her untimely death in 1862 was ruled accidental, but many believe it may have been suicide. After her passing, Rossetti exhumed her body to reclaim his own poetic works, leading to Siddal's posthumous recognition as a cultural icon within the artistic community.
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Subject Terms
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal
Writer
- Born: July 25, 1829
- Birthplace: England
- Died: February 11, 1862
- Place of death: England
Biography
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal’s family was descended from prominent English gentry, but Siddal’s own parents lived more humbly. Her father was a shopkeeper, and when “Lizzie” herself came of age, she was apprenticed to a milliner. It was in this role that she was “discovered” in 1850 by Walter Howard Deverell, a painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB). Siddal’s conspicuous beauty soon landed her a position as the PRB’s favorite model and, eventually, as the wife of poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Siddal was not, however, content with her role as Rossetti’s model and mistress, and in 1852 she began painting. Her artistic career went well until 1854, when she fell gravely ill with some chronic and undiagnosed illness that haunted her for the rest of her life. Although her art continued to be exhibited after she became ill, thereafter she turned her artistic attention towards poetry.
Evidence suggests that Siddal had been writing verse since childhood, but her mature work as a poet began in 1854 and continued until her death eight years later. During this time, she managed to complete fifteen poems, none of which were published during her lifetime. Also, it was only after her husband’s death that these works appeared in print as part of a collection of PRB works. Siddal and Rossetti were estranged during 1858 and 1859. The two were reconciled when, following another severe bout of illness, Siddal contacted Rossetti, allegedly to say farewell. The couple was married in May 1860, and one year later Siddal delivered a stillborn daughter, an event that apparently threw her into a profound depression.
Increasingly dependent on laudanum, in 1862 Siddal was found dead with a vial of the substance by her side. Although her death was ruled accidental, circumstances point to suicide. When she was buried in the Rossetti family plot, her distraught husband placed the only manuscript of his poems in her coffin, but in 1869, when his poetic muse returned, he sent a friend to exhume Siddal’s body and his poetic works.
Rossetti published these recovered works in his Poems (1870), but criticism of his work led him to emulate Siddal by attempting suicide with laudanum. He never remarried and died of Bright’s disease in 1882, but his act contributed to Siddal’s role as a cultural icon.