Marie Stillman (née Spartali) (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Μαρία Σπαρτάλη; 10 March 1844 – 6 March 1927) was a British member of the second generation of the

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jame ...

. Of the Pre-Raphaelites, she had one of the longest-running careers, spanning sixty years and producing over one hundred and fifty works. Though her work with the Brotherhood began as a favorite model, she soon trained and became a respected painter, earning praise from

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

and others.

Personal life

Family history

Marie Spartali was the eldest child of Michael Spartali, a wealthy merchant, principal of the firm

Spartali & Co Spartali & Co was a Greek import/export company active in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Marseille, with its headquarters in the Anatolian city of Smyrna, in the second half of the 19th century. Along with several other Greek-owned merchant com ...

and Greek consul-general based in London from 1866 to 1879. He had moved to London around 1828, where he married Euphrosyne Varsini, the daughter of a Greek merchant from

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

. The family split time between their home at

Clapham Common Clapham Common is a large triangular urban park in Clapham, south London, England. Originally common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, it was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878. It is of g ...

in London and their country home on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

. In the city, Spartali’s father was fond of lavish garden parties where he invited up and coming writers and artists. It was at one such event where Marie would first be introduced to the art world.Robertson, W. Graham. ''Time Was''. (1931) pp.12–13

Marriage and death

In 1870, Spartali met American journalist and painter William J. Stillman. The couple had previously posed for Rossetti in his famous Dante pictures, though it is not certain if that is how they first met. Interestingly, although her husband was an artist himself, Marie never sat for him as a model. The pair married in 1871 against her father's wishes, causing a rift that would never fully heal.Elliot, David B. (2005). ''A Pre-Raphaelite Marriage: The Lives and Works of Marie Spartali Stillman and William James Stillman''. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club As her husband was a foreign correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', the couple divided their time between London and Florence (1878-1883), and later Rome (1889-1896). The couple had three children of their own who were raised alongside William’s other three children from a previous marriage. Marie Stillman died in March 1927 in Ashburn Place in South Kensington, four days shy of her 83rd birthday, and was cremated at

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regi ...

, near

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

, Surrey. She is interred there with her husband. Marie_Spartali_Stillman_-_Self-Portrait

Art and career

Introduction to the Art World

Known for their Greek heritage and beauty, Spartali along with her cousins,

Maria Zambaco Maria Zambaco (29 April 1843, London – 14 July 1914, Paris), born Marie Terpsithea Cassavetti ( el, Μαρία Τερψιθέα Κασσαβέτη, sometimes spelled Maria Tepsithia Kassavetti or referred to as Mary), was a British artist and m ...

and

Aglaia Coronio Aglaia Coronio (''née'' Ionides; 1834 – 20 August 1906, el, Αγλαΐα Κορωνιού) was a British embroiderer, bookbinder, art collector and patron of the arts. Of Greek descent, she was the elder daughter of businessman and art collec ...

, were known collectively among friends as "the Three Graces," after the

Charites In Greek mythology, the Charites ( ), singular ''Charis'', or Graces, were three or more goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, and fertility. Hesiod names three – Aglaea ("Shining"), Euphrosyne ("Joy"), and Tha ...

of Greek mythology (

Aglaia ''Aglaia'' is a genus of 117 species of woody dioecious trees belonging to the Mahogany family ( Meliaceae). These trees occur in the subtropical and tropical forests of Southeast Asia, Northern Australia and the Pacific. Some species are i ...

Euphrosyne Euphrosyne (; grc, Εὐφροσύνη), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, was one of the Charites, known in ancient Rome as the ''Gratiae'' (Graces). She was sometimes called Euthymia (Εὐθυμία) or Eutychia (Εὐτυχία). F ...

and Thalia). Beauty aside, Marie was very tall, and cut an imposing figure- in her later years dressing entirely in black- and purposefully attracting much attention throughout her life.Pre-Raphaelite Portraits, Andrea Rose, Oxford Illustrated Press, 1981, p. 106 In the house of the Greek businessman A.C. Ionides at Tulse Hill, in south London, Marie first met artist

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

and playwright

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

. The meeting made quite the impression, for Swinburne was reported to have said that "She is so beautiful that I want to sit down and cry".Waterman, Amanda B. ''Neo-Pre-Raphaelitism: The Final Generations'', University of Washington, 2016.

The Pre-Raphaelites

In 1864, Whistler introduced Spartali to the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. She began sitting for him and when Spartali expressed interest in learning to paint he referred her to

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...

. Over the next five years the pair developed a close, almost familial, relationship. Of his models, Brown said that Spartali was “the most intellectual,” and maintained a deep respect for her work, chronicled in their correspondence. By 1870, Spartali had decided to pursue art professionally and with the help of her mentor made her first sale for 40 guineas. Example of modeling works: Brown; Burne-Jones ('' The Mill'');

Julia Margaret Cameron Julia Margaret Cameron (''née'' Pattle; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her Soft focus, soft-focus close-ups of famous ...

; Rossetti (''

A Vision of Fiammetta ''A Vision of Fiammetta'' is an oil painting created by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in the Pre-Raphaelite style, created in 1878. The painting was one half of one of Rossetti's "double works", accompanying his ''Ballads and Sonnets'' (1881). Maria S ...

'', '' Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice'', '' The Bower Meadow''); and Spencer Stanhope.

Style

Because of her close links to the Brotherhood Marie Stillman is often identified as part of the second generation of the movement. According to

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, “She inherited the traditions and the temper of the original PRs...but she has come into her heritage by virtue or natural relationship. She is a spontaneous, sincere, naive Pre-Raphaelite.” There is, however, some academic debate as to whether this is entirely accurate. For example, Robert de la Sizeranne of Le Correspondant noted that this new generation of Pre-Raphaelites, Marie Stillman among them, had enough in common with the

Symbolists Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

to be considered one. Marie Spartali Stillman, could be considered a candidate for Symbolism because her figures "... have an immobility, a silence, a pose almost suspended, a slow hesitation in their rare movements, which make them resemble something like sleepwalkers.” Rossetti himself credited Spartali for her ability to infuse her figures with emotion, thereby elevating them to something more than mere images.

Other influences and career impacts

In 1873 both her young daughter, Euphrosyne, and her sister Christina fell ill. Stillman wrote to Ford Madox Brown that she was preoccupied with their health and felt "too weak to paint." She later clarified that whenever she did work she found herself depicting her sister in a grim state. Because of this, she took some time off painting, however Madox-Brown always speculated that she stopped because of her husband's jealousy over her successful career and continued relationship with himself. Alongside her husband, Stillman lived in Florence, Italy for a number of years. She took great inspiration from the city around her which can be seen most prominently in her subject matter. Being in the city of

Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His '' Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ...

, she depicted numerous scenes from the ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature a ...

'', focusing in particular on the romance between Dante and Beatrice. Though separated from her peers, Stillman maintained her correspondence with the PRB and Rossetti in particular who shared her love of Dante. Marie_Spartali_Stillman_-_Farm_Scene

Marie_Spartali_Stillman_-_The_First_Meeting_of_Petrarch_and_Laura

Exhibitions

The subjects of her paintings were typical of the Pre-Raphaelites: female figures; scenes from

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...

and

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...

; also Italian landscapes. She exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in 1875, then at the

Grosvenor Gallery The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it provide ...

and its successor, the New Gallery; at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

; and at various galleries in the eastern USA, including the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Stillman exhibited her work at the

Palace of Fine Arts The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 t ...

at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

in Chicago, Illinois. A retrospective show of her work took place in the United States in 1982, and another one at the

Delaware Art Museum The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artis ...

in 2015. The latter show transferred to the UK, opening at the

Watts Gallery Watts Gallery – Artists' Village is an art gallery in the village of Compton, near Guildford in Surrey. It is dedicated to the work of the Victorian-era painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts. The gallery has been Grade II* listed on th ...

at Compton, Surrey from March until 5 June 2016. Marie_Spartali_Stillman_-_Fiammetta_Singing

Works (Incomplete)

David Elliott lists more than 170 works in his book. The following are the better-known works, as determined by their mention in other books which discuss the artist. * ''The Lady Prays – Desire'' (1867; Lord Lloyd-Webber Collection) * ''Mariana'' (c.1867–1869; Private collection) * ''Portrait of a young woman'' (1868) * ''Forgetfulness'' (1869; Private collection) * ''La Pensierosa'' (1870;

Chazen Museum of Art The Chazen Museum of Art is an art museum located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison, Wisconsin. The Chazen Museum of Art is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. History Until 2005, the Museum was known regularly as th ...

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

) * ''Self-Portrait'' (1871;

) * ''Self-Portrait in Medieval Dress'' (1874) * ''Gathering Orange Blossoms'' (1879;

St. Lawrence University St. Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college in the village of Canton in St. Lawrence County, New York. It has roughly 2,400 undergraduate and 100 graduate students. Though St. Lawrence today is non-denominational, it was founde ...

) * ''The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice on All Saints' Day'' (1881) * ''Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni'' (1884;

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

) * '' Love's Messenger'' (1885;

) * ''A Florentine Lily'' (c.1885–1890; Private collection) * ''The May Feast at the House of Folco Portinari, 1274'' (1887) * ''Dante at Verona'' (1888; Private collection) * ''Upon a Day Came Sorrow unto Me'' (1888) * ''A Florentine Lily'' (c.1885–1890) * ''A Florentine Wedding Feast'' (1890) * ''Messer Ansaldo showing Madonna Dionara his Enchanted Garden'' (1889) This illustrates a tale from ''

The Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label= Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Da ...

'', see Summary of ''Decameron'' tales * ''Convent Lily'' (1891) * ''Cloister Lilies'' (1891; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) * ''Dante and Beatrice, Scene from the Vita Nuova'' (1891) * ''Saint George'' (1892;

)

Marie_Spartali_Stillman_-_The_Pilgrim_Folk

* ''How the Virgin Mary came to Brother Conrad of Offida and laid her Son in his Arms'' (1892; Wightwick Manor, National Trust, UK) * ''A Rose from Armida's Garden'' (1894) * ''Love Sonnets'' (1894;

) * ''Beatrice'' (1896;

) * ''Portrait of Mrs W. St Clair Baddeley'' (1896) * ''Beatrice'' (1898; Private collection) * ''The Pilgrim Folk'' (1914;

)

Madonna_Pietra_degli_Scrovigni_by_Marie_Spartali_Stillman_(1884)

Notes

* Dyson, Stephen L. (2014). ''The LAST AMATEUR The Life of William J. Stillman''. New York: State University of New York. * Marsh, Jan; Pamela Gerrish Nunn (1998). ''Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists''. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 131–135. . * Stillman, William James (1901). ''Autobiography of a Journalist''. London: Grant Richards.

References

# Waterman, Amanda B. ''Neo-Pre-Raphaelitism: The Final Generations'', University of Washington, 2016. # ^ Dimitrios SPARTALI & Christina (Ioannes) Mavrogordato". ''www.christopherlong.co.uk''. Retrieved 23 July 2017 # ^ Vasos Tsibidaros. ''Oi Ellines stin Anglia'' (''The Greeks in England''). Athens: Alkaios, 1974. # ^ Robertson, W. Graham. ''Time Was''. (1931) pp. 12–13 # Elliot, David B. (2005). ''A Pre-Raphaelite Marriage: The Lives and Works of Marie Spartali Stillman and William James Stillman''. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club # Dyson, Stephen L. (2014). ''The LAST AMATEUR The Life of William J. Stillman''. New York: State University of New York. # Casteras, Susan (1995). ''The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy to Symbolism''. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 39. # ^ Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (23 July 2017). "The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Chelsea years, 1863-1872, prelude to crisis : 1863-1867". Boydell & Brewer. Retrieved 23 July 2017 – via Google Books. # ^ Nichols, K. L. "Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893". Retrieved 30 July 2018. # ^ POETRY IN BEAUTY: THE PRE-RAPHAELITE ART OF MARIE SPARTALI STILLMAN, website # ^ Collins, Maxine (9 November 2015). "Marie Spartali Stillman: The female artist time forgot". BBC. Retrieved 10 November 2015. # ^ "Marie Spartali Stillman: The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo". ArtMagick. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016.

External links

Stillman genealogy

Art Renewal Center

Delaware Art Museum

Photograph of Marie Spartali as a heroine of the Greek War of Independence, by Julia Margaret Cameron
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stillman, Marie Spartali 1844 births 1927 deaths 19th-century English painters 20th-century English painters 19th-century English women artists 20th-century English women artists Burials at Brookwood Cemetery English artists' models English people of Greek descent English women painters Female Pre-Raphaelite painters Painters from London Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artists' models Pre-Raphaelite painters Women of the Victorian era Women watercolorists