Marie Spartali Stillman

Marie Euphrosyne Spartali, later Stillman, (born 1844-03-10, died 1927-03-06) was a London-born Pre-Raphaelite painter of Greek descent. She has been described as (arguably) the best of the Pre-Raphaelite women artists. During a 60-year career she produced over one hundred pictures, contributing regularly to galleries in London and the USA.

Life

Maria Spartali was the youngest daughter of Michael and Euphrosyne Spartali. Michael Spartali was a wealthy Greek merchant and diplomat based in London.

Maria Zambaco and Aglaia Coronio were her cousins; the three of them, all of Greek heritage and noted for their beauty, were known collectively by their friends as the Three Graces, after the Charites of Greek mythology (whose names were Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia). Swinburne said of Spartali: "She is so beautiful that I want to sit down and cry".

Spartali studied under Ford Madox Brown for several years from 1864, along with his children Lucy, Catherine and Oliver. She modelled for Brown, Burne-Jones (The Mill, The Beguiling of Merlin), Julia Margaret Cameron, Rossetti (A Vision of Fiammetta, Dante's Dream and The Bower Meadow), Spencer Stanhope and Whistler (La Princesse du Pays de la Porcelaine).

In 1871, against her parents' wishes, she married American journalist and painter William J. Stillman. She was his second wife, his first having committed suicide two years before. His job as a foreign correspondent resulted in the couple dividing their time between London and Florence from 1878 to 1883, and then Rome from 1889 to 1896. She also travelled to America, and was the only English Pre-Raphaelite artist to work in the United States.

Spartali's daughter Euphrosyne (Effie) and her step-daughter Lisa both became artists. Her son Michael became an architect.

Marie Spartali died in London in 1927. She was cremated at Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking, Surrey.

Art

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 its successor, the New Gallery; at the Royal Academy; and at various galleries in the eastern USA, including the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. A retrospective show of her work took place in the United States in 1982.

Works

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 1867-9) private collection
Portrait of a young woman (1868)
Forgetfulness (1869) private collection
La Pensierosa (1870) Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Self-Portrait (1871) Delaware Art Museum
Gathering Orange Blossoms (1879) St. Lawrence University
The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice on All Saints' Day (1881)
Madonna Pietra degli Scrovigni (1884) Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Love's Messenger (1885) Delaware Art Museum
A Florentine Lily (c 1885-90) private collection
The May Feast at the House of Folco Portinari (1887)
Dante at Verona (1888) private collection
Upon a Day Came Sorrow unto Me (1888)
A Florentine Lily (c 1885-90)
Messer Ansaldo showing Madonna Dionara his Enchanted Garden (1889)
Convent Lily (1891)
Cloister Lilies (1891)
Saint George (1892) Delaware Art Museum
How the Virgin Mary came to Brother Conrad of Offida and laid her Son in his Arms (1892) Wightwick Manor, The Mander Collection
A Rose from Armida's Garden (1894)
Love Sonnets (1894) Delaware Art Museum
Beatrice (1895) Delaware Art Museum
Portrait of Mrs W. St Clair Baddeley (1896)
Beatrice (1898) private collection
The Pilgrim Folk (1914) Delaware Art Museum

References

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. ISBN 1-85149-495-2.
Marsh, Jan (1998). Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. pp131-135. ISBN 0-500-28104-1. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links