Your Favourite Alexa - Part 1

Hello Darlings, and welcome to my competition!  If you cast your minds back to last July, you'll remember we had a poll to see which was your favourite image of Fanny Cornforth.  I thought it might be jolly to do the same with Alexa Wilding, seeing as she is the subject of my new novel, A Curl of Copper and Pearl, launched in a couple of weeks.  Not only that, you could win a signed copy too - control yourselves, such excitement!

A Curl of Copper and Pearl focuses on the madness of the Pre-Raphaelite circle as seen through the eyes of Alexa, an outsider.  Rossetti used her face to express his vision over and over again but she has always remained the forgotten muse.  I thought it would re-balance this terrible oversight on behalf of art historians and biographers if we had a vote on what was the most beautiful oil of Alexa and what was the best sketch or portrait.  Today we'll start with the oils, the major works, the famous stuff...

Venus Verticordia (1864-1868) 

Let's begin with the image I chose as the front cover of my book.  Good old Venus, with her boob out - no wonder she's popular!  Begun before Alexa had met Rossetti, it is undoubtedly her face added later, but as for the rest of her, it's a bit of a mash-up.  Absolutely stunning though.  Nice boob.

Regina Cordium (1866)

I've always loved the colour of this picture - it is the pale russets that are actually quite unusual for Rossetti.  She looks like the lip of a seashell, all pearly and blushed, with three colours complimenting each other: gold, pink and orange.  Rossetti had removed Elizabeth from this role to replace her with Alexa - when he did the same in Dante's Dream, with Jane instead of Lizzie, people assumed painter and muse were having an affair.

Monna Vanna (1865)

Again, another one from early in Alexa's time with Rossetti, and I still maintain that the picture was meant to originally be Fanny, not least because she is holding a fan.  It's a great big blousy swirl of a picture, and features those spirally hairpins we love so much.

Sybillia Palmifera (1866)

Veronica Veronese (1872)

I've only put these two together because that is how they are hung in my front room.  It is quite common in Rossetti's depictions of Alexa for her to be a woman paused in the middle of doing something and often she is a woman with a talisman, an object of beauty to which she should be compared.

La Ghirlandata (1873)

In both Veronica Veronese and La Ghirlandata, painted within a year of each other, Alexa is a woman with a musical instrument.  Nothing unusual in that, Rossetti had shown Fanny fondling a Japanese stringed instrument in The Blue Bower.  Possibly he was likening women with sweet music, possibly he was hinting that with proper handling both made beautiful sounds?  Sorry, that came out much saucier than I intended.

La Bella Mano (1875)

Again, from the 1870s, Alexa is washing her hands while assisted by her little handmaidens.  In his earlier picture of hand-washing, it was hinted that the woman was washing away the man that loitered behind her, but this draped, Boudoir Goddess seems to be more glorious and regal than domestic.  Who or what is she looking at, I wonder?

The Blessed Damozel (1875-78)

I'll finish my suggestions with this massive picture.  Taking into account when it was painted and what else was going on in his life and art, this image should really have Jane Morris in it, not Alexa.  Yet there she is, bending over the bar of heaven, looking down at her erstwhile, living lover.  Up in heaven, everyone else is kissing and pairing up, but there she is, gazing out, all on her own, getting no kissing from no-one.  Blimey, sounds like every teenage party I ever went to.

Right, here's what I want you to do: Either leave your suggestion in the comments or send it to me by email (stonellwalker@googlemail.com) or even leave it on The Stunner's Boudoir page on Facebook.  Which is your favourite oil of Alexa Wilding - is it one of these or one I haven't mentioned?  Everyone who votes will get put into a draw for a signed copy of my new book and the result will be revealed on 9th April, the official launch date of A Curl of Copper and Pearl.

I'll see you on Wednesday for the sketches and portraits...