Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (later changed to Siddal) was born July 25, 1829 to Charles and Elizabeth Siddall in Hatton Garden, London. She was the third of seven children. Not much seems to be known of her childhood except that she had many siblings born after her, and that she was inspired by Tennyson’s poetry and wrote her own verse. By the age of twenty she was working in a hatmaker’s shop.
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
This was where Walter Howell Deverell, a young artist affiliated with but not technically a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), first spotted her. The PRB was an artistic movement that valued vibrancy and individuality in art. Deverell had been looking for a model that fit her description: redheaded and thin. He urged his mother to ask Lizzie on his behalf if she would model for him, and she agreed.
Pre-Raphaelite Model
Lizzie modeled for Deverell, with the assurances of his mother and sisters that they would be nearby to ensure the propriety of the situation (modeling was considered very close to prostitution in Victorian culture). Her first modeling job for him was a success, and when he raved about her to his friends in the PRB, most of them wrote to her requesting that she model for them as well. She modeled many times after that.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Charles Gabriel Dante Rossetti, who later changed his name to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was the member of the Pre-Raphaelites who would end up painting Lizzie the most. They met in 1850. Their relationship was to become the most important one of their lives. They quickly became obsessed with each other, and possessiveness and jealousy came with it. There were problems in their relationship quite soon.
Lizzie was of a lower class than Dante, and he knew that his family would not approve of his love. Dante’s mother Frances and sister Christina did not like Lizzie at all, and shared an extremely hostile tea party with her that left Lizzie mortified. These class problems and personal dislikes were some of many reasons why Dante was reluctant to marry Lizzie. However, the two remained the foremost person in each other’s lives.
Lizzie’s Laudanum Addiction
By the early 1850s, Lizzie experienced puzzling health problems, which kept Dante at her side. Dante was very concerned about her well-being, and her problems often rose whenever he needed to leave her. She may have used her health to manipulate Dante into staying with her when she did not want him to leave. Whenever he was away from her and learned that she was ill, she improved only when he arrived to see her.
Lizzie was also addicted to laudanum, which contributed to her ill health. Laudanum addiction was not at all uncommon in the Victorian age, and was used to supposedly cure many ailments. She also did not eat much, and was painfully thin. She may also have refused to eat in order to manipulate Dante into doing what she wanted. Her lack of nutrients and steady diet of laudanum contributed to her lack of well-being.
Remaining a Mistress
Although Lizzie was in an exclusive relationship with Dante, she received grief from fellow Victorians for her union with him. She grew more and more desperate to marry Dante as the years grew on, yet he only intermittently brought up marriage. Her life continued to spiral downwards in a haze of frustration and addiction, though there were occasional bright spots brought on by visits from friends and family, and she wrote and painted as well.
Lizzie and Dante’s Marriage
After hoping and praying that Dante would marry her, Lizzie finally got her wish, though at a very difficult time. In 1860, she became very ill, mostly due to her laudanum addiction. Her heavy reliance rendered her unable to keep food or drink down. She was in pain and vomiting. Dante was so worried that he vowed to marry Lizzie as soon as she was able to walk to church. In April 1860, they married.
Soon after the wedding, Lizzie became pregnant. She and Dante were overjoyed. However, there were concerns with the pregnancy, as Lizzie had not given up laudanum, which would be very dangerous to a fetus. Combined with her thinness and sporadic eating, her odds were not good. In 1861, she gave birth to a stillborn girl. It devastated her and Dante, and Lizzie relied even more heavily on drugs to cope with her mourning.
The Death of Elizabeth Siddal
Lizzie remained addicted to laudanum. She became pregnant again, and Dante hoped this second pregnancy would make Lizzie happy. It did not, and her downward spiral continued. On February 11, 1862, Dante briefly left, and upon returning he found Lizzie with a note pinned to her nightgown. In the note, she asked Dante to care for her disabled younger brother. She was not dead yet, but died the following day.
She committed suicide by overdosing on laudanum. It was a sad end to a mostly troubled life. Dante was devastated over losing her, and buried several poems with her. Some time later, he needed those poems, and Lizzie’s coffin was exhumed for them. He reported that Lizzie’s hair had continued to grow after death and overflowed from the coffin. Such an apocryphal story shows the significance of Lizzie Siddal’s beauty even after death.
Source:
Hawksley, Lucinda, Lizzie Siddal: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel (London: Carlton Publishing Group), 2004.
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