Rosetti and Elizabeth Siddal

What a couple of weekends it has been! I ended up making a couple of unexpected nocturnal journeys on my Orange Titanium over the Bank Holiday weekend and another Friday night just gone. This saw me make a 50 mile round trip, from London to the countryside and back. Not wanting to do this on my own, I enlisted the help of old friend Tom, who took one of his Brompton Titanium bikes. Perhaps a blog post for another time. On the way back I passed the house where the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood resided and later Highgate Cemetery. I could not resist in writing this blog post as a result. 

I have always been a bit of a fan of their work and joke with Mrs Orange that if she had of been spotted by one of the occupants, she would have featured in a painting as she simply has the look they would have been after. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) was one of the leading artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. A talented painter and poet, he became famous for his vivid, dreamlike artworks and his fascination with romance, beauty and medieval legends. Rossetti's life was often as dramatic as his paintings, particularly after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Siddal.

Few stories in Victorian art are as haunting as that of the painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his wife, Elizabeth Siddal. Rossetti, met Siddal in the late 1840s. Born in London, Siddal was discovered working in a millinery shop and became a favourite model for leading Pre-Raphaelite artists. She famously posed for Ophelia by John Everett Millais, one of the most celebrated paintings of the Victorian era (and quite possibly one of my favourites). 

Beyond modelling, Siddal developed her own artistic and literary talents. She produced distinctive drawings and watercolours and wrote poetry noted for its emotional depth and haunting imagery. Her work was supported by influential art critic John Ruskin, who recognized her artistic promise. After years of ill health and personal struggles, Siddal died in 1862 at the age of 32 and was buried in the Rossetti family grave at Highgate Cemetery. 

Overcome with grief, Rossetti made an extraordinary gesture. He placed the only manuscript copy of many of his poems in Siddal's coffin before her burial, effectively sacrificing his literary work as a token of love and remorse.

Seven years later, however, Rossetti's desire to publish the poems led him to authorize the exhumation of Siddal's grave at Highgate. In a secret nighttime operation, the manuscript was recovered and eventually formed part of his celebrated 1870 collection Poems.

The episode has become one of the most famous and macabre stories in literary history. Today, those visiting the cemetery still seek out the Rossetti family grave, where the intertwined lives of two remarkable artists continue to capture the imagination more than 160 years later. 

Why is Dante Gabriel Rossetti not buried there I hear you ask? There are accounts of him finding the experience of reclaiming his poems traumatic, leaving him with profound guilt. He is supposed to have instructed, 'Let me not on any account be buried at Highgate.'

Until next time, stay safe out there people!