William Morris and Red House

A number of sources give summaries of the life of Jane Morris. See below for:

Victorian Art - in Britain - Jane Morris

Wikipedia - Jane Morris

The present extract is taken, with thanks, from Jan Marsh, The Pre-Raphaelites ( p54-55), 1998, NPG

'Beauty like hers is genius,' wrote Rossetti of 'this sovereign face' that ruled his art in iconic splendour. Henry James was also impressed. 'It's hard to say whether she's a grand synthesis of all Pre-Raphaelite pictures ever made - or they a "keen analysis" of her - whether she's an original or a copy,' he wrote on meeting her. 'In either case she is a wonder,'

The daughter of a stableman, Jane Burden was 17 when 'discovered' by the artists in Oxford and persuaded to pose as Queen Guinevere and La Belle Iseult. Her dark hair and sombre, almost melancholy beauty were in contradiction to the Victorian peaches-and-cream ideal.

In 1859 she married William Morris, and from the start took an active part in the work of Morris & Co. 'Everyone in the small circle, man or woman, was called upon to join in,' wrote her daughter May. Jane and her sister Bessie were the pre-eminent embroiderers, not only producing many of the finest pieces but also supervising the other needlewomen.

Mother of two girls, by the late 1860s Janey was sitting regularly for Rossetti, whose admiration grew into obsession. 'I consider this portrait one of the very best D.G.Rossetti ever did of me,' she wrote on the back of the drawing shown here. She returned his feelings and in 1871 Morris took Kelmscott Manor on a joint lease that Jane and Rossetti might be together.

But after Rossetti's breakdown Jane reluctantly ended the affair, destroying many of his love letters. Friends of her later life included artist Marie Spartali, suffragist Jane Cobden, first woman elected to the London County Council, and maverick politician W.S.Blunt, supporter of Irish and Arab nationalism, with whom she had an amitie amoureuse.

Shyness and a deep sense of privacy made her appear silent and reserved. 'Only her intimate friends knew the kindliness, the good sense and the girlish sense of fun which remained hers until the end of her life,' wrote her obituarist in The Times.