Pre-Raphaelites in Love (Paperback)

by Gay Daly (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Behind the dreamlike women in Pre-Raphaelite paintings stood the artists' flesh-and-blood models with whom they often became romantically involved. Dante Gabriel Rossetti transformed shopkeeper Elizabeth Siddal into his saintly Beatrice and slept with barmaid Annie Miller. By marrying teenaged Jane Burden, William Morris tried to seize hold of one of the medieval maidens in his paintings; he projected grace, charm, uncanny wisdom onto her shyness, but she felt emotionally trapped and the marriage broke down. Daly, who has taught women's studies, presents an often touching, sometimes hilarious, always engrossing portrait of the high-minded Victorian Brotherhood, their romances and their almost incestuous cross-connections. The men do not come off well: William Holman Hunt's arrogant attempt to remake flirtatious Annie Miller into a well-read lady reminds one of the Pygmalion-Galatea myth. John Ruskin trivialized and condescended to his wife Effie Gray; she later married sexually demanding John Everett Millais, who made her a breeder in an endless round of pregnancies. This is amorous biography at its witty, perceptive best. Illustrated.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
The Pre-Raphaelite painters' enigmatic relationships with their models are among the more romantic legends of the Victorian art world, and Daly here recounts some of their well-known and occasionally entangled affections. For the most part, she concentrates on the women's perspective, but her narrative all too often falls prey to the more dynamic personalities of the painters. Not all of Daly's storytelling is even-handed: key elements in the tragedy of Elizabeth Siddal and new evidence about Jane Morris's attitudes are glossed over. Since the Pre-Raphaelites and their paintings are popular icons of 19th-century British culture, the book is a suitable acquisition for public libraries that do not already have Jan Marsh's The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood ( LJ 10/1/85), which covers most of the same ground.
- Paula A. Baxter, NYPL
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Quality Paperback Book Club; First Edition. first thus edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582880271
• ISBN-13: 978-1582880273
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #518,447 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The art of love., March 19, 2002

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: PRE-RAPHAELITES IN LOVE (Hardcover)

"Each is a psychological and aesthetic puzzle," Gay Daly writes about the women who modeled for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. "One woman sits with eyes closed in a religious trance that seems to border on sexual ecstasy. Another, longing for an absent lover, stretches like a langorous tiger, her voluptuous body wrapped in a dress of rich royal blue velvet that dominates the canvas, insisting that the viewer dwell on her curves" (pp. xvii-xviii). Founded in 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, namely William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, "believed that every rose must be painted from a live flower, every face from an actual human being" (p. xviii). They searched every Victorian street corner, drawing room, and church for the faces and bodies that would fire both their artistic and romantic fantasies. The "beautiful" and equally "disturbing" women they painted came from almost every class and corner of London. Among them were the "spoiled, petted daughter of a solicitor, a hearty, motherly prostitute, a wily barmaid, and the daughter of a Methodist minister" (p. xix).

Drawn from letters written by and to these intriguing women (p. xxii), Daly's book triumphs at bringing the Pre-Raphaelites and their romances to life in these pages. For instance, Daly explores the ten-year romance between Rossetti and his "medieval shining angel" (p. 32), Lizzie Siddal (a shopgirl), which ended with her suicide at age 32; Hunt's "dance of approach and avoidance" (p. 120) with a "gorgeous young" barmaid, Annie Miller (p. 101), a "street urchin" who "swore like a trooper and couldn't read a word" (p. 104); and Millais' sexually-charged marriage to Effie Gray, who was previously linked to John Ruskin in a strange marriage that was never consumated. Along the way, Ruskin, Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Rudyard Kipling make appearances in Daly's ambitious book.

Although it was challenging to locate a copy of Daly's out-of-print book, her study of the Pre-Raphaelites was as interesting to read as a Victorian novel. She insightfully examines Victorian social values and marriage, and reveals that the romantic lives of the Pre-Raphaelites were just as mesmerizing as their luminous paintings.

G. Merritt

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the juicy bits, November 30, 2004

By	Gagewyn (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: PRE-RAPHAELITES IN LOVE (Hardcover)

Fact that reads like fiction is my favorite genre - and this book is it: pet elephants in London apartments, exhumed beauties, a long married virgin and of course plenty of sex and drugs. Daly gives biographies of the artists with emphasis on their love lives and how that tied in with their paintings (the women discussed modeled for them even if they weren't models in general). Artists covered: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, William Holman Hunt, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Each is given a biography with many reproductions of art works, and much much focus on the woman or women they loved.

Although the book focuses on aspects of the artists lives which might tend toward lurid rather than serious, the stories interweave seemlessly with the paintings, so this book is anything but soft. For example Elizbeth Siddal became ill while poseing for Millais' Ophellia. She posed floating in a bathtub full of water while he depicted the famous drowning victim. She was Rossetti's favorite model and girl and the recuring illness influenced both their lives. He often painted her as Beatrice and in his mind saw him and her as playing out the doomed story of Dante and Beatrice.

The biographies of each artist were constantly reinforced and tied to art works. Reproductions of art were small but good quality. There were examples of sketches and the single painting by Siddal, a self portrait. This is particularily interesting because she depicted herself as serious and severe while these famous artists depicted her as the epitome of beauty.

This is very readable and gave me more appreciation for the stories behind these paintings. I recommend reading this if it sounds at all interesting to you. Libraries should archive a copy because this is excellent art history with more emphasis on women than usual, and because the painting and sketches by Elizabeth Siddal are very rarely reproduced. There is also a good discussion of the founding and early history of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and some detail about the childhoods of each artist.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful look at the relationships of artists and models, November 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: PRE-RAPHAELITES IN LOVE (Hardcover)

The author reveals the intimate lives and souls of both the Pre-Raphaelite painters and their models. The thoughtless treatment of the women by these self-centered men is made acceptable only by the evidence of the genius involved in their craft. Daly's ability to bring these complex personalities to life is captivating.