Melancholia is described as a subset of depression that includes feelings of extreme despair and guilt. We cannot say exactly what feelings of guilt this famous Shakespearean character may have had, except over letting her father and brother come between her and the man she loved to the point where he rejected her. The he, Hamlet, also later killed her father. Extreme, I know, but this is Shakespeare. The end result was her tragic suicide by drowning. Here we see a depiction of her as she lets herself drift off to an inevitable death.
As one might guess from the subject matter, the Pre-Raphaelites were a group of 19th century British painters dedicated to returning to certain aspects of the art that came before Raphael. Founded in 1848, quite a revolutionary year in European history with revolts against monarchies throughout Europe (all of which failed at that time), the group sought to overturn the strict rules of the formal art academy. Those rules were based upon the principles found in the work of the High Renaissance as exemplified by Raphael. None of these painters despised the work of Raphael. What they did not like was the codified way that it was used to produce art, an art that had become overly-academic and so much less creative. These artists wanted to go back to the early Renaissance of the Quatrocento (1400s) to capture the nature of things and represent them in hyper-realism. This “realism” came with a heavy dose of romanticism, as the subjects were normally based upon myth and legend.
This group of rebellious looking young men were the founders of the group, which later consisted also of William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederick George Stephens, and Thomas Woolner. They were surrounded by a variety of poets, writers, musicians, and other creatives who wanted to change the way the arts were expressed. These painters emphasized great detail with lush and vibrant colors, all to tell the often tragic stories handed down in Shakespearean plays and in Arthurian legends. This brings us to the melancholy women and one in particular named Lizzie Siddal.
The focus of the painter John Everett Millais for his painting of Ophelia was to create an accurate picture of what her drowning would have looked like. He scouted a spot along the Hogsmill River that matched the description in Shakespeare. He labored there for a number of months since it was anathema for the Pre-Raphaelites to finish their outdoor scenes in the studio. Millais painted the outdoors, while actually outdoors, to capture the exact nature of the location. (Notice in the painting the detail in his treatment of the plants, trees, and flowers along the river.)
Then it was time to set things up in the studio for the model, who was a beautiful 19-year-old who had worked selling hats. Her name was Elizabeth Siddal, and she goes down as probably art history’s most dedicated artist’s model. Millais persuaded her to model for his Ophelia by dressing her in a gown laced with silver that he had bought for £4 in a flea market (fleas included?) and putting her into a tub of water that was heated by a series of candles (see the BBC photo above). She modeled for Millais over a period of four months before one of the two great tragedies of her life occurred.
As any artist knows, the art demands full concentration, and so it was when one afternoon Millais was so intent upon his work that he did not see that the candles had gone out. Lizzie continued floating in cold water without saying a word, dutifully holding firm to the pose. She, of course, fell ill. Most say of a cold; I’d say pneumonia. Her father threatened to sue Millais, who was about 22 years old at the time and came from a wealthy family. Millais agreed to pay for her medical expenses, about £50 which would be almost $10,000 in today’s currency. Though she recovered, the incident had a deleterious effect on her health for the rest of her life.
Frida Kahlo famously said of her own life, “There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.” Lizzie Siddal could have paraphrased that by replacing trolley with bathtub and Diego with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Since he was a close companion and co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti came to know Lizzie. In terms of documenting her beauty, with her as his companion, he could feast his eyes upon her at will. In fact, Rossetti’s sister, the poet Christina Rossetti said, “He feeds upon her face by day and by night. And she with true kind eyes looks back at him.” Sure signs of a tragedy.
And so it was. Their relationship lasted off and on for about nine years in which Rossetti energetically shared his good looks with many another woman. However, finally Lizzie and Rossetti married. It did not last long, and their first child was born dead. Lizzie suffered severely from post-partum depression and took a dose of laudanum, which is derived from the opium poppy. She died from it at the age of 31 in 1862. Rossetti laid a manuscript of the poems he had been writing about her in the coffin saying, “I have often been writing at those poems when Lizzie was ill and suffering, and I might have been attending to her, and now they shall go.” He later admitted to be haunted by her ghost. merrynaillingham.com
Now, not to present Lizzie as a goddess who let herself become a doormat, she won critical acclaim from none other than John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the day for her painting. Yes, she exhibited with the Pre-Raphaelites as a painter herself. Her love of poetry was what drew her into the world of these artists, where she could earn more money modeling than selling hats and thereby support her desire to become a poet. However, it was her painting that ultimately drew Ruskin’s attention, along with his support for her as a superb artist’s model. He even paid her 150 pounds sterling per year to have first right of refusal for her paintings. The Tate has a page on its website for her, tate.org.uk.
This detail of Ophelia’s hand provides a lot of insight into the goals and the achievements of the Pre-Raphaelites. Though their painting has often been criticized for being overly romantic and melodramatic, the skill and dedication with which they approached the reproduction of the reality they saw has to be appreciated. Here one feels the sensation of the water that is floating Ophelia and these flowers away. Each of the flowers has meaning, from the violets, which also form her necklace and stand for faithfulness, to the red poppy that symbolized the death that their opium often brought. Shakespeare wrote a line in Hamlet for Gertrude in which she speaks of Ophelia’s death, describing the young woman as having fallen into a stream while picking flowers and being swept away, all the while singing. A bright red poppy is prominent in Millais painting, positioned near Ophelia’s upturned hand.
As time passed the Pre-Raphaelites were overtaken by the Impressionists, another radical (at that time) movement. However, John William Waterhouse (1949-1917), born at about the time of the creation of the Pre-Raphaelites, was to carry that movement into the early 20th century with what seems to me a more cinematic touch. TO BE CONTINUED…
Sources for this post are the following: “The Story of Ophelia” from the Tate Britain tate.org.uk; “John Everett Millais’ Ophelia – 3 Facts” news.artnet.com; “Lizzie Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite Muse and Artist” marinamade.me; “If Ophelia Could Talk, the True Story of the Iconic Artist-Muse” messynessychic.com
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
Wine and Anglophonia
Anglophonia? Okay, I admit to taking liberalities with the language, but what I mean to address is wine in the world not of the Mediterranean Latins or the Aegean Greeks, but in the lands of the English-speaking. The Romans are the ones really credited with the spread of vineyards and wine production throughout their vast empire. That empire included the British Isles and no, they were not left out when it came to the cultivation of the grape.
While one might not automatically think of England as a wine-producing country, in fact, the southern regions of England, like Essex, Kent, and Sussex, have a number of vineyards. There are abour 500 working vineyards in the UK, and many of them allow visitors. For a list of the 12 Best as of 2019, click the link under the picture above. The limestone soil (chalk) found there allows for the planting of a number of varieties of grapes, including Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, two of the most popular and useful varieties for wine making. One thing often noticed about UK wines is that they are expensive. This comes from there being small quantities of grapes grown compared to other regions on the planet and the labor-intensive way of making wine. This increases the quality and thus the higher price. To discuss these matters and tell “All About English Wines,” Wine Folly has an article to do just that, winefolly.com
Canada is another of those places that one associates with such cold weather that grape growing must surely be impossible. Au contrare mes chers amis! The warm currents that come up the Pacific Coast allow for many of the same growing conditions found in our own Washington State to continue over the border into British Columbia. There the Okanagan Valley is the star producer of wines. Vineyards with names such as Tantalus, Laughing Stock, and Burrowing Owl all produce 90 point Pinot Noir, Riesling, Merlot and Syrah wines. Meanwhile on the other side of that vast country, the Niagara region of Ontario has become quite famous for wine in its town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. While Chardonnay production is quite common, there is also a speciality of a different type, Ice Wine. For that the Peller Estates Winery offers a unique experience. One can have one’s ice wine served while one is in an igloo! Nothing like a true taste of Canadian cold while sipping a delightful sweet wine.
Australia and New Zealand, yes, the two always come trippingly off the tongue together, and they do share a general geographic location and produce good quality wines. In Australia, Canberra and New South Wales are the stars. Clonakilla Winery in the Canberra District was the first to notice the warm days and cool nights in the region would favor the cultivation of the grape. Clonakilla produces very fine Riesling and Shiraz. Meanwhile New South Wales’ Hunter Valley knew wine grape cultivation since the 1860s. Here there are wineries that encourage tasting and food pairing. Across the sea a bit lies New Zealand, where its Hawke’s Bay area has become known as the “Bordeaux of New Zealand” for its production of rich red wines. Lonely Planet has a great top ten wineries article that covers Australia and New Zealand, and yes, there are pictures of kangeroos, lonelyplanet.com
South Africa certainly wins awards for having a beautiful wine-growing region, but it doesn’t stop there. South Africa produces many world-class wines, such as the Anthonij Rupert medium bodied Bordeaux blend or Plume Palace’s Shiraz Rosé, or a Raised By Wolves Sémillon. The grapes grown in South Africa tend to be Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Shiraz. Most of the wine producing areas are relatively close to Cape Town, such as the Franschhoek area, named by Dutch settlers for the French Huguenots who first settled there in the late 1600s. That area is protected by the mountains that also capture the cool ocean breezes. The terrain is mainly sandstone and receives the benefit of the many streams that come from the mountains that surround it. South Africa also has a vast coastal growing region. For more on that click the link above.
While that is a quick trip around the English-speaking world and its viniculture, that is not all. In the Anglophone world, the major producer of wines is the United States, but that is something TO BE CONTINUED…
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©marjorie vernelle 2021
Coming Soon: Waterhouse Cracks the Mirror and Wines of Anglophonia: USA.
John William Waterhouse was also a Pre-Raphaelite though he was a baby when the movement started. He, however, continued the tradition with a move toward a slightly different look. Here is the second painting in the series on Lady Shalott, a damsel in the Arthurian legends who broke from her restricted life in order to gaze upon the knight Lancelot. In it one sees a flare for the dramatic that takes on a rather cinematic touch. In particular, just behind her is the mirror that cracked to signal the curse that befell her, yet another Pre-Raphaelite melancholy lady.