Lizzie Siddal by Lucinda Hawksley

Author:Lucinda Hawksley [Hawksley, Lucinda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78012-169-7
Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd
Published: 2005-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

Lonely without Lizzie, Rossetti spent New Year’s Eve 1855 with the Madox Browns; contrarily, his animosity for Emma had dissipated now that she was no longer able to spend time with Lizzie. Instead of resenting her, he was happy to see her as being a remembrance of Guggum. Ford noted in his diary that Rossetti had by now sent Lizzie £55 in the three months since her departure. He had also bought himself a fantastic set of new clothes – “he looked handsome and a gentleman” – and was talking of buying himself a watch, but was careful not to mention paying back the £15 he owed to Ford. That New Year’s Eve was not without its excitement, as Ford also recorded in his diary. Halfway through the evening, Emma realized that the roaring fire in the grate had sparked off a chimney fire. While her husband rushed outside and up a ladder to extinguish the flames, Rossetti decided he could best help by raking all the coals out of the grate to cool off and stop any more sparks going up the chimney. Unfortunately he did so without putting down any protective covering, spilling them out on to the Madox Browns’ new Kidderminster carpet and ruining it in the process. As usual, Ford was indulgent in his diary entry, despite his obvious annoyance.

Although he spent his New Year’s Eve quietly at home with a married couple, Rossetti did not spend all his time mourning his lover’s absence. He had met two new friends, intriguing young men who were interested in the Pre-Raphaelites and in flattering awe of Rossetti. Their names were William Morris (1834–96), known as “Topsy”, and Edward Burne-Jones (1833–98), known as “Ned”. Morris came from a privileged background. He was financially secure but still threw himself passionately into his work, bursting with creative energy that desired an outlet and with a political soul that led him to become a confirmed and active Socialist.62 In the mid-1850s, Morris’s chief desire was to be a designer – he began his career working with an architect – and a poet, but Rossetti convinced him that any man who had poetry in his soul should also be a painter. In awe of Rossetti, Morris followed his advice and struggled valiantly to paint to his own satisfaction – though his self-judgement was harsh. Like Rossetti, Burne-Jones was a born painter. A motherless child growing up in an impoverished home in Birmingham, he had known from the start that he was destined to be an artist. He and Morris had met in Oxford, realized they shared an ideology and decided to rent a studio together. In London, they rented rooms in Red Lion Square, where Rossetti and Deverell had shared a studio several years earlier.

It was not only Topsy and Ned with whom Rossetti spent his bachelor months. With Lizzie in France and Holman Hunt still safely in the Middle East, Rossetti and Annie Miller found they had ample opportunity to console one another – but a shock was in store.

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