Lady Lilith is an oil painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti first painted in 1866–1868 using his mistress Fanny Cornforth as the model, then altered in 1872–73 to show the face of Alexa Wilding. The subject is Lilith, who was, according to ancient Judaic myth, "the first wife of Adam" and is associated with the seduction of men and the murder of children. She is shown as a "powerful and evil temptress" and as "an iconic, Amazon-like female with long, flowing hair."
Lady Lilith
Lady Lilith, 1867, watercolour replica, showing the face of Fanny Cornforth, now Metropolitan.
Study for Lady Lilith, 1866, in red chalk. Now in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Sibylla Palmifera, 1866–1870, also features Alexa Wilding as the model. It forms a pair with Lady Lilith with Rossetti poems inscribed on each frame. Now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery.
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti inspired the next generation of artists and writers, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in particular. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.
Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti c. 1871, by George Frederic Watts
Self-portrait, 1847
Original manuscript of Autumn Song by Rossetti, 1848, Ashley Library
Portrait of Frances Gabriele Rossetti the Artist's Mother (1877)