Marie Spartali Stillman

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Marie Spartali Stillman photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron (1868)

Marie Euphrosyne Spartali Stillman (born March 10, 1844 in London , † March 6, 1927 ibid) was a British muse , model and painter of the Pre-Raphaelites , of Greek origin.

Life

Rossetti: William James Stillman, 1870

Marie Euphrosyne was the youngest daughter of the wealthy businessman and later Consul General Michael Spartali and his wife Euphrosyne Varsoni. She was considered to be true beauty and spirited from an early age . Her parents attached great importance to a good upbringing, so Marie received lessons in Greek , Italian , French , literature , music , singing and dance . After a teacher recognized her talent for drawing , she also took lessons from Ford Madox Brown . Together with her cousins Maria Theresia Cassavetti and Aglaia Ionides, she was the model for James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti . The influence of the two painters can be seen in their later works.

On April 10, 1871, Marie Spartali married the American journalist and art enthusiast William James Stillman (1828-1901), son of the Californian politician Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman, against the wishes of her parents in Chelsea . From the previous marriage to Laura Mack - she committed in 1869 in Athens suicide - brought Stillman three children into the marriage. The joint connection also resulted in three children, Euphrosyne (1871-1911), Michael (1878-1967) and William (1881-1882). As a foreign correspondent for the daily newspaper The Times , the couple traveled frequently to Florence (1878 to 1883) and to Rome (1889 to 1896), where Stillman worked as a US consul.

The subjects of her paintings were typical of the Pre-Raphaelites: female figures, scenes from Shakespeare , Petrarch , Dante and Boccaccio ; also Italian landscapes. She exhibited at the Dudley Gallery , then at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts , as well as in various galleries on the east coast of the USA, including the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia (1876).

Marie Stillman died in London on March 6, 1927 and was buried next to her husband in Brookwood Cemetery .

Marie Spartali as a model (selection)

  • Rossetti: Marie Spartali (1869)

  • Rossetti: The Bower Meadow (1872), Marie Spartali Stillman (left) and Alexa Wilding

Works by Marie Spartali Stillman (selection)

  • Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni (1884)

  • The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo (1889)

  • A Rose from Armida's Garden (1894)

literature

  • David Elliot: A Pre-Raphaelite Marriage: The Lives and Works of Marie Spartali Stillman and William James Stillman , Woodbridge, Suffolk (2005) ISBN 1-85149-495-2 .
  • Jan Marsh and Pamela Gerrish Nunn: Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists . London: Thames and Hudson (1998) ISBN 0-500-28104-1 .
  • William James Stillman: Autobiography of a Journalist , London: Grant Richards (1901)
  • Stilman, Marie . In: Hermann Alexander Müller : Biographical Artist Lexicon. The most famous contemporaries in the field of fine arts of all countries with details of their works . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1882, p. 507. Digitized

Web links

Commons : Marie Spartali Stillman  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Stillman, Marie Spartali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stillman, Marie Euphrosyne Spartali (full name); Spartali, Marie Euphrosyne (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter, muse and model
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1927
Place of death London