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Offering β After Millais
Published: 2005-03-01 06:10:39 +0000 UTC; Views: 5371; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 531
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Description
Millais' 'Ophelia' is, to me, one of the greatest paintings ever. this is my attempt to kind of replicate it, in my own style ..Ophelia is being played by lockstock , while the background is used by permission from fuzzymemo .
the full view is better.
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Comments: 79
I've featured this lovely artwork in my Journal .
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gorgeous. being a bg pre-raphaelite fan myself, I'm delighted by this piece.
Elizabeth Siddal nearly cught her death on pneumonia modelling for that painting in a bathtub of cold water....
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thanks.
and yes, she did.
but reading that her life was truly sad came as no small wonder. she adored rosetti, but she always fell second in his esteem to his regard for art. but it was her incurable sorrow from giving birth to their stillborn daughter, and only after her suicide did rosetti acknowledge how important she was to him. and, the next part should be fiction, but itβs unfortunately not. rosetti wrote her so many poems, declaring his undying love for her (probably while also telling her to prepare the tea, make the scones and his watercress sandwiches, iron his best cravat and shine his boots). but after the presumably intentional laudanum overdose that killed her, rosetti placed these poems into her coffin, and buried them with her. but seven years later he had her body exhumed so he could recover his words, and publish them. legend has it that even after her death, lizzieβs red hair had continued to grow, and grow, luxuriantly filling the coffin. and, as the story also goes, rosettiβs own mental breakdown followed soon after, rarely being able to sleep without the images of his dead and ransacked wife forcing their way into his head
and staying there.
she's buried in highgate cemetery, just out of london. and sometimes i wonder about all that red hair ..
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Hmm. From what I've read, Gabriel expected her to do no more housework than he did, not to mention teaching her to paint and encouraging her writing. They both ate at a chophouse (most unusual, as ladies from polite society did NOT go to chop-houses or pubs for dinner) in the evening as he didn't think she should waste her time cooking meals.
However, he forever forced her into the role on Dantes' Beatrice (in art as in his mind), endlessly ran off with other women (most prominently Fanny Cornforth, and a fellow artists inteded - Annie), pressured her for sex without marrying her (the last thing you want is an illegitimate pregnancy)refused to marry her until she was at deaths door and was hopelessly inconstant in his affection.
You can see a healthier part of him in his drifts of tiny sketches of her, that show her as human, real and carefuly observed, drawn with a loving hand - a sharp contrast to his larger paintings featuring her as a model, where she was crammed into the role of distant godess, angel, saint - anything but fellow human being.
It seems he almost craved the trajedy of her death - a raw material, the stuff of high art - he did a drawing of a model expiring while posing before an artists easel, not long before poor Lizzie kicked the bucket.
His sister, Christina, though never close to Elizabeth (his fear of marriage prevented him from introducing Lizzie to his family until very late) wrote the following lines on the matter...
One face looks out from all his canvases
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans;
We found her hidden just behind those screens
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,
A sain, an angel;-every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him
Fair as the moon,and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting. nor with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was, when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.
I'm unsurprised that her red hair would have continued to grow - it does that for a while, as do the nails. Have you seen her self-portrait?
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yes, i've seen it.
perhaps i should have researched the nature of their relationship before i began wildly hypothesizing about rosetti's regard for lizzie.
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*grins*nah, what's the fun in not letting yourself hypothesise wildly?
And anyway, he did wreck her life in a sense,so you were spot on there...*nods*
Haha...and they called each other Guggum...
Guggum...
sounds like something you make boots from...or a plant...
If you want an awesome book on the relationships the Brothers had with their models, check out Gay Daly's amorus biography "The Pre-Raphaelites in Love" - she's an amazingly insightful, non-judgemental writere and very thorough researcher. It's probably among my favourite works on the subject.
ok, i think i'll go and prowl your gallery now.
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Gay Daly?
lordy, some people get all the best names .. although i once knew a woman named Gay Blood, which was even better.
and if your gallery crawl ends up at the cafe then i'll buy you a drink.
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theheehee..yeah.
a friend of mine was asking after the book, having heard me rave on about it some years ago just the other day...
"hey, think i could get that Gay Dalliance or whatever art book off you?"
I've had that book since i was 16, and i found something ridiculos in the back - the blank notes pages in the back are not blank. my 16yearold angstmuffin self wrote a letter to dear gabriel after first reading it...*blushes profusely* thankfully, entirely free of any fangirlish "hi dead guy, you're hot" business that girls that age seem prone to.
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Genius! I saw that painting last year when I studied HAMLET. You got it almost exactly right (of course it could never be exactly right 
lockstock looks so much different here!
Very good work
AP
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oooooooo wonderful!
--------
visit my stock: ~KasStock
my art: *world-of-silence
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thanks
... i was pleased with the way this turned out.
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poor lady, some one should help her...
+Aithne
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and ruin the romance ???
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oh oh, so sorry, then let her be
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wow...you did a really great job with this
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your welcome...i adore your work!! ooh, if you need some stock please go check my stock account out . I woudl be so honored if you used any of my pics in a work of art. not many people use my stock...so i am trying to promote it
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i've just been on a raid of your stock .. i'm spoiled for choice!
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hahaha...thats cool.
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Beautiful! Did you use a filter or is it all textures?
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thanks!
surprisingly enough, one of the few PS filters i don't use is the 'Watercolor' one, as it looks really, really not like any watercolour i know of. but i do use PS filters (although they are are means to an end, and not the end themselves).
i have a PS Action somewhere in my gallery called 'Watercolour Action', which is a simplified version of what i do, so if you're interested, download it, install it, open it up, and the process is nearly all there.
thanks for the fave, too.
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Good to know, thank you very much for the info & for the friend, much appreciated.
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OHHH! I love it! Love your rendition, so awesome.
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thank you!
i was really pleased with how this one turned out ..
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I love your "painted" pieces. And this one is no less gorgeous than your last pieces. The stock you used is perfect and go so well with your style of manipulation. You're a master.
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thank you,
i'm pleased with how this turned out.
seeing the original for the first time, years ago, was an epiphinaic moment.
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actually, i think so too
i'm really pleased with how this turned out.
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Favourite.
This is stunning!
I love the almost painted quality to it, the colours and everything are beautiful.
Amazing piece.
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thank you so much!
i'm feeling quite humbled ...
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I always loved the wonderful colour and detail and texture in that painting. This is a beautiful tribute to it.
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thank you!
apparently the original model for Millais was Lizzie Siddal, who nearly froze in the bath while Millais painted her, as he hadn't noticed that the candles underneath it, which warmed the water, had all gone out, and Lizzie had been told not to move .. so she kept absolutely still. i believe she contracted pneumonia .. true.
i don't know why i just told this part of the paintings' history, hope you liked it ..
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Maybe you just intuitively sensed I liked art history.
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or that you listen to folk music as well (okay, i cheated, i just visited your DA site) .. we folkies have gotta stick together.
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Sharing knowledge is just as important as sharing art, & sharing is caring...
After I read this I had to go find some more out about the model.
Here [link] is one of the pages that help quench my curiosity...
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lordy, she counted Bram Stoker and Lewis Carroll among her acquantainces .. everything is connected, somehow ..
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Yes it is. Most times people forget how small this little blue ball really is.
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wonderful. as usual. i could just sit and stare at this for ever
+Aithne
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you're more than welcome, sweets.
and maybe write a poem while you're sitting there.
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ill see waht i can do my lovelyest of gramps
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Is this [link] what you're talking about? ( Millais Ophelia)
Well no matter. I like yours much better.. The colours just draw you in...
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thanks!
i'm really pleased with how this turned out.
for some reason, the version in your link is reversed ..
here's a better one:
[link]
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You're welcome.
Are you trying to say I am "bassackwards "?
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