ROSSETTI’S “BLESSED DAMOZEL”
ROSSETTI, BY HIMSELF
Painted in 1855.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was poet as well as painter, buried the manuscript of his poems, although they had been announced for publication, in the coffin of his wife, who died in February, 1862. Not until October, 1869, was the manuscript resurrected and the publication of his poems made possible. It is doubtful if poet or painter has ever paid a greater tribute than Rossetti thus paid to Elizabeth Siddal.
ROSA TRIPLEX, BY ROSSETTI
Rossetti was introduced to Elizabeth by a brother artist, who had discovered her in a milliner’s shop in London. She consented to pose for Rossetti. His brother, in some charming reminiscences of her, writes that to fall in love with Elizabeth Siddal was a very easy performance, and that Dante Gabriel did it at an early date. The name Elizabeth, however, was never on Dante’s lips; but rather Lizzie or Liz, and fully as often Guggums, Guggum, or Gug. Mrs. Hueffer, the younger daughter of Ford Madox-Brown, says that when she was a small child she saw Rossetti at his easel in her father’s house uttering momentarily, in the absence of the beloved one, “Guggum, Guggum!” After awhile “Guggum” became a settled institution in Rossetti’s studio, and other people, his brother included, understood they were not wanted there. Dante was constantly drawing from Guggum, and she designing under his tuition. He was unconventional, and she, if not so originally, became so in the course of her companionship with him. In her appearance, as in her character, she was a remarkable young woman.
THE BEAUTY OF ELIZABETH SIDDAL
