Jane Morris; Wife to William, mistress to Rossetti and muse for them both

While researching Lizzie Siddal, I found this site...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2545376/Rival-Lizzie-Siddal-mistress-Rossetti-wife-William-Morris-fascinating-life-Pre-Raphaelite-muse-Jane-Burden-revealed.html

It's about a woman named Jane Burden, who was another Pre-Raphaelite model, the wife of William Morris and the mistress of Rossetti!

"She was the famous beauty who captured the heart of one of the UK's best-loved artists but unlike her contemporary, Lizzie Siddal, few remember Jade Burden today. And yet, the story of Jane Burden, later Morris, the beautiful stablehand's daughter who went on to appear in some of the world's most famous paintings, is just as fascinating."

Portrait of Jane Burden by Rossetti, 1881

"Although Jade Burden didn't share Siddal's tawny colouring, she did match her for beauty."

When she was 18 she was spotted outside Oxford's Drury Theatre by Edward Burne-Jones and Gabriel Dante Rossetti. "The pair were enraptured by her beauty"

Jane Burden was smitten with Rossetti, but he was engaged to Siddal, and didn't reciprocate the feelings. So instead she became engaged to his friend, William Morris, whom she went on to marry in 1859 and had 2 daughters with.

"Despite her humble background, the new Mrs Morris had few problems fitting into upper class society, refining her accent to the point where friends described it as 'queenly' and later inspiring Vernon Lee's 1884 novel 'Miss Brown', which in turn inspired the musical and film, 'My Fair Lady'.

But although she and Morris appear to have been happy, Rossetti remained in the background and after Siddal's death, their affair began in earnest. The relationship would last, off and on, until his death in 1882, and she would go on to star in some of his most famous works. After his death, she embarked on an affair with poet and political activist Wilfred Scawen Blunt that endured until 1894."

In 1896 William Morris died, leaving Jane to live for a further 16 years, until she died peacefully aged 75 on 26th January 1914 in Bath.

"Muse, model and romantic, Jane's death might have been a conventional one but her life was anything but."



Tate: Rossetti's muses and love life
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/discovering-rossettis-women