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Marie Spartali Stillman

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Marie Euphrosyne Spartali, later Stillman, (born March 10 1844, died March 6 1927) 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 merchant and Greek consul-general 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 by Edward Burne-Jones.jpg), Julia Margaret Cameron, Rossetti (A Vision of Fiammetta by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.jpg, Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.jpg and Rossetti wiese.jpg), 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 Britain-based 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 and interred in her father's tomb at West Norwood Cemetery

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.

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; Pamela Gerrish Nunn (1998). Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28104-1.
  • Stillman, William James (1901). Autobiography of a Journalist. London: Grant Richards.

External links



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