Elizabeth Siddal was "discovered" by Walter Deverell in 1849, and brought into the Pre-Raphaelite circle by working as a model for Deverell, William Hunt, and John Everett Millais. Soon after, she was introduced to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and began modelling for him exclusively. Her volatile romance with him was marked by illness, bouts of depression, class tension, and Rossetti's philandering. Their relationship continued for nearly a decade, was briefly discontinued, and then in 1860 they suddenly married. By his own account, it was only when he believed her deathly ill that he proposed marriage. In 1861, she delivered a stillborn daughter, suffered from postpartum depression and became addicted to laudanum. In 1862, she died from an overdose. The coroner's report listed the overdose as an accident, although there were rumours of suicide and a destroyed note. In a symbolic gesture, Rossetti had his manuscript buried with his wife. Then later, regretting the decision, he had her body exhumed to retrieve his poems. Siddal's small artistic output would be forever overshadowed by her role as Pre-Raphaelite model, mistress, and tragic muse. Find out more »