Lady Lilith

This is the picture as DGR originally executed it, with Fanny Cornforth as the model. It was painted in 1864, but in 1872-1873 DGR substituted the face of Alexa Wilding for that of Fanny Cornforth. Almost no one has been happy with the change.

The watercolor replica in the Metropolitan Museum, in which Cornforth is the model, gives some better idea of what this painting must have looked like. Marillier supplies a black and white reproduction from a contemporary photograph. Stephens' description of the painting refers to this original oil work.

The painting was commissioned by Frederick Leyland in 1866 but not finished until 1868 (or perhaps even 1869).

The critical remarks by Swinburne and Stephens testify to the power of this picture in its original state.

• Allen,“One Strangling Golden Hair”.
• Edelstein,“Rossetti and the Sensation Novel”.
• Elzea, Bancroft and Related Collections, 114-17.
• Faxon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 201-03.
• Fennell, The Rossetti-Leyland Letters, 14-17, 27-37.
• Gowans and Gray, Masterpieces of DGR , 30.
• Marillier, DGR: An Illustrated Memorial , 132-34.
• Miller,“The Mirror's Secret”.
• Pittman,“Strumpet and the Snake”.
• Smith, “Lady Lilith and the Language of Flowers.
• Stephens, Dante Gabriel Rossetti , 66-69.
• Surtees, A Catalogue Raisonné , vol. 1, 116-18 (no. 205).
• Swinburne, Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition , 46-47.