Beyond Ophelia

Better known as 'Lizzie Siddal', the model who posed for John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia, Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti is now finally recognised as a Pre-Raphaelite artist in her own right, working alongside her male colleagues on equal terms. Elizabeth's designs were truly original, the creation of her own imagination. They embodied the essence of Pre-Raphaelitism that her husband Gabriel & other members of the circle were striving to achieve. The male members of the group copied the ideas from Elizabeth's small sketches to create their own masterpieces which have since become the epitome of Pre-Raphaelite art. The exclusion of women from the narrative has had a major impact in creating the perception of the Pre-Raphaelites as a male artistic movement; in 'Beyond Ophelia', Glenda Youde shows Elizabeth not as a pathetic drowning figure, but as the initiator of a directional change in Pre-Raphaelite art.