Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal

Dante Gabriel Rossetti created numerous portraits of Elizabeth Siddal, his muse and later his wife. Siddal was discovered working in a hat shop in Leicester Square around 1849-1850 and became one of the most famous faces of the Victorian age. She modeled for several Pre-Raphaelite artists before working exclusively with Rossetti from 1851.

Siddal was more than a passive "stunner," as the Pre-Raphaelite beauties were called. She was an artist herself, the only woman to exhibit alongside the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood at the 1857 Russell Place exhibition. She wrote poetry and chose literary subjects for her own paintings, sharing the group's passion for literature.

This portrait is held at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington. Rossetti drew and painted Siddal obsessively, making her one of the most depicted women in Pre-Raphaelite art. She died tragically in 1862 from a laudanum overdose.