Marie Spartali Stillmann

[self portrait] 1871

charcoal and white chalk on paper board

Delaware Art Museum

drawn about the time of her marriage

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Marie Spartali Stillmann nee Spartali.

Born in Middlesex in 1843, the daughter of Michael Spartali an import-export businessman and sometime Greel consul. She trained under Ford Madox Brown from 1864-70, alongside his daughters, and was an occasional model for him, Rossetti and Cameron. She married in 1871 against her family wishes, the American journalist and artist W.J. Stillman. They settled in Florence and had three children (one of whom died in infancy) and then in Rome. She still managed to exhibit regularly in London and the USA, but seems to have sold little in her lifetime. Many of her works use Italian related subjects. She died in 1927.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Spartali_Stillman

http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/artist.aspx?artist=marie-spartali-stillman

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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.