Dreaming Awake: Images of Women in Pre-Raphaelite Art

This essay considers the work of women artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement whose art is represented in the collections of the Delaware Art Museum, notably Elizabeth Siddal and Marie Spartali Stillman. The main focus is on images of women portrayed in moments of reflection or contemplation whose distant gaze and deep absorption indicates a retreat from the world of everyday activity to focus on the inner life. It concludes that women portrayed in the art of Marie Spartali Stillman are no idle or or empty headed day dreamers but rather somatic depictions of inner psychic states who remain alert to heightened sensory perceptions – the touch of objects, the scent of flowers, the flutter of a bird's wing. These works thus contribute to the artistic experimentation of the fin de siècle in which artists, prompted by a move away from materialism, explored the depiction of inner states of mind.

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