two versions of elizabeth siddal. her self portrait, completed in between 1853 and 1854, is one of h

two versions of elizabeth siddal. her self portrait, completed in between 1853 and 1854, is one of her only serious undertakings in oil to have survived to the present. her gaze is direct, her mouth tight- a portrait which bears the painter’s own understanding of their appearance. this is in contrast to the watercolour by her husband, dante gabriel rossetti, also painted around 1854, which shows a more genteel version of siddal with downcast eyes and delicately folded hands.