On this day in 1862, Mrs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti passed away. Her name was Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862) an artist's muse who dreamed of becoming an artist herself and she was well on her way until well we all know how it ended. So, I wanted to do something different to honor such an enigmatic woman. Besides, the blog biography article with Pre-Raphaelite centered Rossetti Siddal 'Muse' association; I thought of my friend Kris Lundberg and the idea of interviewing her! What better day to post an interview than today? Well, I must explain that I came home from work last night, dog tired when I remembered today's anniversary and thought what could I do differently...So, my wholehearted, complete gratitude to Kris Lundberg for answering my interview questions not only in less than my short not so 24 hour request but her answers are straight from the heart with love and dedication to Lizzie and of course her Gabriel...
Here we go...get ready and wherever you are, Mrs. Rossetti nee Siddal, Lizzie, I hope you have found peace in your heart and are together with your parents and siblings and your Gabriel. Enough of my rambling on and on...
Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal Resting, Holding a Parasol by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (British, 1828 - 1882)
Dated 1852-55, Pen and brown ink with light brown and gray wash
Private Collection (England) [sold, Christie's, London, December 12, 1992, lot 78] The J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles, California
Dante Gabriel Rossetti sharply foreshortened Elizabeth Siddal's sleeping body, allowing her voluminous skirt to dominate the drawing's foreground while her torso and head, more faintly drawn, recede in the background.
Siddal began sitting for Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artists in 1849,
when she was about fifteen. By 1852 she was working exclusively for
painter-poet Rossetti and became his lover and his pupil. Rossetti made
more than sixty intimate drawings of her in the 1850s, in which she
usually appeared in some type of repose.
Elizabeth Siddal (Mrs. Dante Gabriel Rossetti), c. 1854
by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Art Institute Chicago
Kris Lundberg has
spent the past thirteen years advocating for educational advancement of
students in New York City using a creative curriculum.
As a teacher, she teaches pre K-12 students, in addition to serving as a guest
teaching artist at colleges. As a community leader, Kris has
stepped into the shelters and continues to teach her theater workshops to women
in need, as well as serving as a mentor to Columbia University students with an
interest in theater and education. As an actress, she's worked on the
stage and screen and, as a writer, her plays have been produced in New
York, London and the Carolinas. Additionally, she is the author of
children's book "Sniffy McSnifferson Meets the Beloved".
Kris has trained classically
with Julian Glover, Bill Homewood and Richard Ryan in London, UK and holds her
Bachelor of Science and Professional Licensure in K-12 teaching in Theater
Education from East Carolina University in North Carolina. She is a member of
the League of Professional Theatre Women, The Shakespeare's Society, SAG-AFTRA
and the Actors’ Equity Association.
1) Elizabeth
Siddal is known mainly as the ‘muse’ of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelite
Painter and the man who became her husband. Who is ‘Lizzie’ to you? Why bring
her out of the shadows into the light?
Lizzie a multi-talented, powerhouse of a
woman. Historically, people tend to
remember her first as the model for John Millais’ painting “Ophelia” and second
as the muse of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Her story is often told in tow of the Pre-Raphaelite men when she really
deserves a playing space of her own. She
certainly is interesting enough. She
seemed talented beyond her years and it’s devastating that she cut her life
short when her world was just ahead of her.
The pre-Raphs loved to paint the
fallen woman which she played well. It
was also important for me to show the beautiful beacon of light she was and
portray a Victorian woman as a symbol of strength.
2) What
inspired you to write, "Muse"? How did it come about?
When I lived in London, I fell in love
with Pre-Raphaelite paintings and made frequent visits to the Tate Museum. The first painting I saw there was of
Elizabeth Siddal as “Ophelia”. It was
hauntingly beautiful and I was drawn to who this model was. I spent years researching the Victorian era,
the PRB history and Lizzie’s transition from growing up in the slums to
becoming the 19th century’s Kate Moss. In the Shakespeare’s Sister Company’s
inaugural season of The Woolf Series, we premiered a performance reading of the
full-length play which had informed a rewrite and focused specifically on the
love story between Lizzie and Dante. I
premiered the one-act play at Theater For The New City this past year and am in
the process of working on producing the fully developed, full-length production
where the audience is introduced to new characters such as Hunt, Millais,
Deverell and Mrs. Tozer. I’m ecstatic to
see the type of response this production will get. It still remains a Victorian non-fiction drama, but there will some twists
which the audience won’t be expecting!
3) How
did you decide what aspects of Elizabeth Siddal’s life to focus on in your
play, "Muse"?
It’s really tough because, in the one-act,
I covered thirteen years of history in a seventy-five minute play. Due to the excellent coverage in the books
and websites of Lucinda Hawksley, Jan Marsh and Stephanie Pina (the Pre-Raph
Trinity), I was able to gather what I needed to streamline Lizzie’s life events
without major gaps. Because the play is
kind of like a ghost story from Rossetti’s memories of her, we got to see the
muse through the artist’s eyes. The
majority of the play focuses on her early years of modeling to her death and
ghostly memory. However, it was really
important for me to have Lizzie tell Rossetti about her family life and to show
how rough it was for her in the slummier area of Southwark. To show how her inner talents brought her out
of poverty and escalated her to a rich, rewarding life that became larger than
life. Everyone in the Victorian era was
enamored by the painting of “Ophelia” and, to this day, it’s such a famous
painting that people may not know the name of the model, but they know her
inescapable sorrow. Elizabeth Siddal is
one of the most, well-deserved empathized true figures in history who people
just seem to love.
4) In "Muse" you include Lizzie’s trip to France and John Ruskin coming into the
frame during her relationship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Could you talk a bit
about about Lizzie’s time in France?
Yes, something which I plan to expand on
in the full-length play. There’s a rich
and beautiful history of what happens in France that needs explaining. Ruskin adored Lizzie and sent her to the
South of France to recover from the pneumonia she suffered from posing for
“Ophelia”. While she enjoyed the South
of France, this was the first time in her life Lizzie actually had money. She could afford to go shopping and wanted to
dress like the women in Paris. She never
wore corsets, but that didn’t stop her from buying some. It was also around this time when Lizzie
decided to invest in herself as an artist and see if she was really good. She furthered her education by taking some
art classes and perfecting her technique.
She was struggling though. In a
time when she should have been on top of the world, she was neglected by
Rossetti who often painted and slept with other women while she was away.
5) What
would you like to say about Lizzie that you haven’t already said? Do you think
she would have been as interesting to Pre-Raphaelite art lovers if not for her
connection to Rossetti?
What a great question.
Of course my immediate response is absolutely. However, in the Victorian times and even to
this day, the world still seems to feel more comfortable seeing a dude in
driver’s seat. Traditionally, that’s
what we’ve been exposed to and it’s sad.
The rare times we see a woman taking the lead, she’s in some sort of
distress needing a man to save her from herself or she’s a cookie cutter
representing something evil that accents all of her physical features. This is why more women are writing and
producing to create art that step away from these archetypes and take a risk on
creating great stories. Elizabeth Siddal
through her charm and nature, I believe, would have become this interesting,
however I don’t think she would have become the iconic figure people see her as
today without Rossetti’s endorsement. Rossetti was an incredibly charismatic
gent who demanded attention when he entered a room, so for anyone to take their
eyes off him to focus on Elizabeth, she has to be that much more
captivating. Historically, he created
opportunities for her and introduced her to people. He also became her mentor. She in-kind complimented him as well,
especially when it came to Ruskin. They
fit each other. It’s devastating how it
all turned out though. My hope with
“Muse” is that people will see this is a love story between artists, but, even
more, it’s a tribute to the incredible person Lizzie was.
For more information about Actress, Writer, and Playwright, Kris Lundberg
To discover more about her fabulous play, "Muse" to buy tickets, check out their calendar of events, and or just get involved, Shakespeare's Sister Company
