Marie Spartali Stillman

Marie Spartali Stillman was a Pre-Raphaelite painter of rich, dreamy pictures of women from literature and legend. She worked mostly in watercolour and gouache, and her pictures are full of flowers, gardens and soft colour.

Born in London to a Greek family, she was a model for Rossetti and others before studying painting with Ford Madox Brown from 1864. She married the American journalist William James Stillman and lived for years in Florence and Rome, painting Italian landscapes as well as scenes from Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Shakespeare. Her work is in the Delaware Art Museum, the Walker Art Gallery and the Ashmolean.

A Rose from Armida’s Garden and Beatrice show her love of pattern and romantic subjects.