The supermodel did not arrive when Twiggy first donned false eyelashes; the concept began more than one hundred years previously, with a stunning young artists' model whose face captivated a generation. Saved from the drudgery of a working-class existence by an astute young Pre-Raphaelite artist, Lizzie Siddal rose to become one of the most famous faces in Victorian Britain and a pivotal figure of London's artistic world, until tragically ending her young life in a laudanum-soaked suicide in 1862. In the twenty-first century, even those who do not know her name always recognise her face: she is Millais' doomed Ophelia and Rossetti's beatified Beatrice. Her image haunts the viewer and has become the globally recognised incarnation of Pre-Raphaelitism. This colourful and emotionally-charged biography takes Lizzie from the background of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's life and, finally, brings her to the forefront of her own.

Table of Contents

1.The Red-Haired Model; 2.A Pre-Raphaelite Muse; 3.Dante and Beatrice; 4.Painting the Dream; 5.Falling in Love with Ophelia; 6."Why does he not marry her?"; 7.Lizzie's Mysterious Illness; 8.Rossetti and Ruskin; 9.Meeting the Ruskins and the Rosettis; 10.Seeking a Cure; 11."She hath no loyal Knight and true"; 12.In Sickness and In Health; 13."So we two wore our strange estate: Familiar, unaffected, free"; 14.The Queen of Hearts; 15."The hour which might have been"; 16."How is it in the unknown land?"; 17."Lord May I Come"; 18.The Coroner's Verdict; 19.Without Her; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author

Lucinda Hawksley has an MA in Literature and the

Reviews

"'A truly extraordinary achievement. The icon takes flesh before our eyes. Lucinda Hawksley's sympathetic scholarship has produced a portrait of Pre-Raphaelitism's most celebrated face which is as gripping as a romantic novel. But it is also the result of meticulous research which throws fascinating new light on the Rossettis and their circle' - A.N. WILSON"