Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti married the model for his paintings, Elizabeth Siddall, in St Clement's Church in 1860, and they lived in the High Street. They were regularly visited by other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who were aiming at a natural style of painting and loved the clear colours of Hastings landscapes. Here is William Holman Hunt's painting of Fairlight (1852-1858):


And here is Millais' Ophelia. The model was Lizzie Siddall:


Below is Rossetti's drawing of Lizzie Siddall painting:

And here is his marriage portrait of her:

Rossetti's sister, Christina Rossetti, who also lived in the High Street, wrote this poem about Dante's relationship with Lizzie:

One face looks out from all his canvases,

One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:

We found her hidden just behind those screens,

That mirror gave back all her loveliness.

A queen in opal or in ruby dress,

A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,

A saint, an angel -- every canvas means

The same one meaning, neither more nor less.

He feeds upon her face by day and night,

And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,

Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:

Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;

Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;

Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

Lizzie's life ended tragically. She died of an overdose of laudanum in 1862, some time after having given birth to a stillborn baby.