Editing Elizabeth Siddal (section)

==Artwork and poetry==
{{See also|Elizabeth Siddal#Selected works|label 1=Selected works <span style="color:black">section</span>}}
[[File:Siddal-self-portrait.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth Siddal, ''self-portrait'', 1854]]

In 1853, Siddal signed ''The Lady of Shalott'' as "E. E. Siddal", the first time she had signed one of her works and an early instance of her shortened surname.<ref name="Snow 2023"/> By that same year, Rossetti had taken Siddal on as a student.{{sfn |Hawksley |2004 |p=[https://archive.org/details/lizziesiddaltrag0000hawk_c8a2/page/48/mode/2up 48]}} He told his friend [[Ford Madox Brown]] that her "fecundity of invention and facility are quite wonderful, much greater than mine".<ref name="McLaren 2023">{{cite web |last=McLaren |first=Iona |title=Was Elizabeth Siddal the real brains behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood? |website=The Telegraph |date=2023-03-24 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/tate-britains-rossettis-exhibition-suggests-model-elizabeth/ |access-date=2023-04-07 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407000551/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/tate-britains-rossettis-exhibition-suggests-model-elizabeth/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Siddal seems to have inspired Rossetti, as he followed her in depicting the same subjects, and he reused her designs after her death.<ref name="McLaren 2023"/>

Siddal's 1854 ''self-portrait'' (see right) diverged from the Pre-Raphaelites' typical idealised beauty.<ref name="Wyver 2021">{{cite web |last=Wyver |first=Kate |title=Muse and model or painter-poet? Elizabeth Siddal given fresh portrait |website=The Guardian |date=2021-09-07 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/sep/07/pre-raphaelite-muse-elizabeth-siddal-rashdash-theatre |access-date=2023-04-14 |archive-date=10 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410174441/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/sep/07/pre-raphaelite-muse-elizabeth-siddal-rashdash-theatre |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="McLaren 2023"/> As Anna Solomon wrote, "she depicts herself looking harsher, angrier and less attractive than the languid Siddal of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings."<ref name="Solomon 2023">{{cite web |last=Solomon |first=Anna |title=The Rossettis: Inside Europe's most culturally influential family |website=Luxury London |date=2023-04-06 |url=https://luxurylondon.co.uk/culture/art/the-rossettis-tate-britain-exhibition-dante-gabriel-christina/ |access-date=2023-04-20 |archive-date=20 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420042108/https://luxurylondon.co.uk/culture/art/the-rossettis-tate-britain-exhibition-dante-gabriel-christina/ |url-status=live }}</ref> From 1855 to 1857, art critic [[John Ruskin]] subsidised her career and paid £150 per year in exchange for all the drawings and paintings she produced.<ref name="McLaren 2023"/> She produced many sketches, drawings, and watercolours as well as one oil painting. Her sketches are similar to other Pre-Raphaelite compositions illustrating Arthurian legend and other idealized [[medieval]] themes, and she was the only woman who exhibited with the Pre-Raphaelites at an 1857 exhibition at No. 4 Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, London.<ref name="Lanigan 2008 pp. 9—19">{{citation |last=Lanigan |first=Dennis T. |title=The First Pre-Raphaelite Group Exhibition |date=Spring 2008 |oclc=229860172 |journal=Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies |volume=17 |pages=9–19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427195916/http://jprs.apps01.yorku.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/jprsSpring08Lanigan.pdf |archive-date=27 April 2023 |url-status=dead |issn=1060-149X |url=http://jprs.apps01.yorku.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/jprsSpring08Lanigan.pdf |access-date=15 April 2023 }}</ref><ref name="Bradley 1992 p=136">{{cite journal |last=Bradley |first=Laurel |title=Elizabeth Siddal: Drawn into the Pre-Raphaelite Circle |journal=Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies |publisher=JSTOR |volume=18 |issue=2 |year=1992 |issn=0069-3235 |doi=10.2307/4101558 |jstor=4101558 |pages=136–145, 187 |oclc=5546369860}}</ref><ref name="Hawksley 2020"/> That same year, Siddal studied at the  [[Sheffield School of Art]].{{sfn |Marsh |1988 |p=72}}

During Siddal's career as an artist and poet from 1852 to 1861, she produced more than a hundred works.<ref name="Snow 2022">{{cite web |last=Snow |first=Emily |title=Who Was Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite Artist & Muse? |website=TheCollector |date=2022-11-16 |url=https://www.thecollector.com/who-was-elizabeth-siddal-pre-raphaelite-muse/ |access-date=2023-04-14 |archive-date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414053557/https://www.thecollector.com/who-was-elizabeth-siddal-pre-raphaelite-muse/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Unpublished during her lifetime, her poetry often dwelt on dark themes, lost love, or the impossibility of true love. Her small poetic output was nonetheless accomplished. Constance Hassett wrote that "Siddal's poetry ranges from the perfectly realized ballad narrative, to its opposite, the overheard lyric, and to something in between, the made-to-be heard monologue."<ref name="Hassett 1997 pp. 443–470"/> Critic [[William Gaunt (art historian)|William Gaunt]] wrote that "Her verses were as simple and moving as ancient ballads; her drawings were as genuine in their medieval spirit as much more highly finished and competent works of Pre-Raphaelite art."{{sfn |Gaunt |1972 |p=[https://archive.org/details/preraphaelitedre0000gaun_g7r8/page/64/mode/2up 64]}}