Marie Spartali Stillman
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
Marie Euphrosyne was the youngest daughter of a wealthy businessman and later Consul General Michael Spartali and his wife Euphrosyne Varsoni. It was early on as a true beauty and spirited. Her parents placed great importance on a good education, so Marie was taught in Greek, Italian, French, literature, music, song and dance. Once a teacher recognized her talent for drawing, she was also teaching at 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 is evident in her later works.
On April 10, 1871 Marie Spartali married against the wishes of her parents in Chelsea the U.S. journalists and art lovers William James Stillman ( 1828-1901 ), son of Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman California politician. From the previous marriage with Laura Mack - she committed suicide in 1869 in Athens - Stillman brought three children into the marriage. From the joint compound also three children, Euphrosyne (1871-1911) went, Michael (1878-1967) and William (1881-1882), out. Through the tasks as a foreign correspondent for the daily newspaper The Times, the couple traveled frequently to Florence ( 1878-1883 ) and Rome ( 1889-1896 ), where Stillman served as U.S. consul.
The subjects of her paintings were typical of the Pre-Raphaelites: female characters, 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 several galleries on the East Coast of the U.S., including the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia (1876 ).
Marie Stillman died on March 6, 1927 in London and was buried in the cemetery Brookwood beside her husband.
Marie Spartali as a model (selection)
Rossetti The Bower Meadow ( 1872), Marie Spartali Stillman (left) and Alexa Wilding
Works of Marie Spartali Stillman (selection)
The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo (1889 )
A Rose from Armida 's Garden (1894 )