Lizzie Siddal. The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel

Allingham noted in his diary, "Short, sad and strange her life ; it must have seemed like a troubled dream."

Swinburne did not try to hide the fact that he adored Lizzie, he looked upon her as a favoured sister, whom he would do anything to protect. When Rossetti spent long hours working in his studio, Swinburne would come and keep Lizzie company, reading aloud to her on days she felt too weak to venture outdoors. She took great pleasure in his visits and felt comfortable enough in his company to lie back on her invalid's couch and listen to him reading or participate in brilliant conversation. Even while Rossetti was painting a delectable model behind closed doors, Swinburne could make Lizzie cry with laughter.

On April 14, 1855, Madox Brown accompanied an excited Lizzie to the premises of "sundry colourmen", where she chose her palette, brushes and colours. Rossetti was unable to take her because he was in debt to almost every art supplies shop in London and dared not show his face in any of them.

A letter from Ruskin to Lizzie [...] ended with, "You inventive people pay very dearly for your powers."

Lizzie's appearance created quite a stir in the small seaside town, her red hair once again proving intriguing. One day she was taking a donkey ride along the beach when a little boy, perched on a nearby donkey, asked if there were any elephants where she came from. He was so enchanted by her unusual looks that he told her he knew she must come from somewhere very far away and from a place as exotic as the land that was home to the giant animals he had seen the previous year when a visiting circus had come to town.

Fragment of a Ballad

Many a mile over land and sea
Unsummoned my love returned to me ;
I remember not the words he said
But only the trees moaning overhead.

And he came ready to take and bear
The cross I had carried for many a year,
But words came slowly one by one
From frozen lips shut still and dumb.

How sounded my words so still and slow
To the great strong heart that loved me so,
Who came to save me from pain and wrong
And to comfort me with his love so strong ?

I felt the wind strike chill and cold
And vapours rise from the red-brown mould ;
I felt the spell that held my breath
Bending me down to a living death.

Superstition still deemed that red hair was unlucky and associated it with witches, black magic and a biblical reference to Judas Iscariot having red hair.