Just the other week I was saying how I had never seen a photograph of Alexa Wilding and how excited I had been to discover a small picture of her face in an old biography of Rossetti. Well, imagine how over excited I am today – in The Victorian Art World in Photographs by Jeremy Maas I found another one!
Inscribed on the back with ‘Miss Wilding’ by William Michael Rossetti, it was among his brother’s belongings, so had obviously been given to him by Alexa, or possibly Rossetti arranged to have the picture taken. She holds a flower, with one pinned to her neckline and one on her lap, looking to the side rather dreamily.
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| Alexa Wilding (1866) |
Unlike the previous photo of Alexa, I think this one was devised with far more ‘artistic’ intentions. She is looking off to the side, which is a fairly common pose for Rossetti muses. I wonder if another purpose of the picture might have been to support her acting aspirations. She does look like a romantic leading lady, doesn’t she?
Anyway, here is the lovely Alexa. Again. Not quite so mysterious now, is she?
wow... stunning!
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