Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal

Lady Affixing Pennant to a Knight’s Spear

c.1856

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In Tate Britain
Exhibition

The Rossettis

A major exhibition devoted to the radical Rossetti generation

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Artist: Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal 1829–1862
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 137 × 137 mm
frame: 378 × 378 × 23 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by W.C. Alexander 1917
Reference: N03202

Display caption

Elizabeth Siddall began painting in 1852 and made over a hundred works in the following ten years. Her style and subject matter was close to Rossetti's, but their relationship was reciprocal, with each of their medieval, romantic dreams supporting the other's. They sometimes collaborated, and Siddall's compositions were copied by Rossetti for one of his pictures. Ruskin greatly admired her work, and paid her a retainer to support her career. Here she treats a chivalric subject, albeit one laden with sexual symbolism.

Gallery label, August 2004

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