Mathilde Blind by Lucy Madox Brown, 1872

Mathilde Blind (born Mathilda Cohen; 21 March 1841 – 26 November 1896), was a German-born English poet, fiction writer, biographer, essayist and critic. In the early 1870s she emerged as a pioneering female aesthete in a mostly male community of artists and writers. By the late 1880s she had become prominent among New Woman writers such as Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), Amy Levy, Mona Caird, Olive Schreiner, Rosamund Marriott Watson, and Katharine Tynan. She was praised by Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Michael Rossetti, Amy Levy, Edith Nesbit, Arthur Symons and Arnold Bennett. Her much-discussed poem The Ascent of Man presents a distinctly feminist response to the Darwinian theory of evolution.

Blind's early political affiliations were shaped by the foreign refugees who frequented her stepfather's house, including Giuseppe Mazzini, for whom she entertained a passionate admiration and about whom she would publish reminiscences in the Fortnightly Review in 1891. Other revolutionaries who frequent her mother and stepfather's house in St. John's Wood included Karl Marx and Louis Blanc. Her early commitment to women's suffrage was influenced by her mother's friend Caroline Ashurst Stansfeld, who was active in the British feminist movement from its origins in the 1840s. These radical affiliations are manifested in Blind's politically charged poetry, and in her own unbending commitment to reform. As Richard Garnett observed, in the society of political refugees and radicals Blind was raised in, "admiration must necessarily be reserved for audacity in enterprise, fortitude in adversity... anything breathing unconquerable defiance of the powers that were."

Evelyn De Morgan (British, ) • Aurora Triumphant • c. 1886 • Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum - Bournemouth, UK • Period: Pre-raphaelite Brotherhood

According to the Greek poet Hesiod's Theogony, Aurora was the daughter of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness Theia and sister of Helios, the sun god, and Selene, the moon goddess.

- Britannica

Rainbows in the art of Evelyn de morgan

America's Next Top Pre-Raphaelite Model

Henchwomen Through the Ages

The "ages" of comics are not hard and fast things, and even comic book historians argue where they begin and end. They're more like moods than time periods, and your standard game of Henchwoman RPG will probably be set in a vague time period that could be anywhere from the thirties to today with an overall Silver Age mood. Still, let's take a look at how the roll of the Henchwoman has evolved, shall we?

Goldie is a gun-toting, cigar-chomping bank robber in victory rolls and a bullet bra. She's not called a henchwoman- she's called "Look out, that broad has a grenade!" She's loyal to the boss despite his dumb penny gimmick, but if he ever finked on her in court, he wouldn't live to see the sunrise. There's no Henchwomen's Union for her to join yet, but she's provided muscle for plenty of mob-backed unions. Goldie can't afford to be soft on heroes since they'd be just as happy to throw her off a roof as to arrest her, but she might be wooed by an appeal to patriotism- she ain't no Nazi rat! Her hobbies include matinee shows, swing dancing, and blasting coppers.

Sylvia is a competitive surfer and was a cocktail waitress until they fired her for slapping too many customers. Thanks to the newly formed Henchwomen's Union, she's treated much better by her current job, which usually involves crashing parties to steal themed jewelry. She and the heroes she fights have an understanding- they'll never be rough with her, and she won't check up on them after putting them in a death trap to see if they've died. On her off hours, she can go dancing in the same outfit she worked in- a silver jumpsuit, gogo boots and a purely decorative motorcycle helmet.

Brawny is a member of the Sisterhood of Wicked Witches, and she fights for a cause- or rather, several causes. These range from the reasonable (Save the whales!) to the less reasonable (A free ray gun for every child!) The Henchwomen's Union is strong enough to get her good pay, so many of her problems are philosophical- is she a good guy or a bad guy, and what do good and bad even mean? Brawny has to be a bit more careful than she would have been ten years ago, since death may well stick- but that also means she might really kill a hero, at least for a while, and that's what matters!

Tenebra prefers to be called a Dark Muse, a member of a vampire circle dedicated to bringing art to life, painted in colors of blood. Her eyeliner is swirly and her gowns are velvet, and she wears them onstage in her sideline darkwave band. Tenebra arranges her crimes in accordance with pre-raphaelite imagery, with victims displayed in heartbreakingly beautiful and mythologically-influenced poses. Her boss may technically be the Queen of the Vampires, and she may have a card with the Henchwomen's Union, but her true loyalty is to art itself.

Ferra is a mercenary with a separate pouch for each type of bullet, and she has a lot of types of bullet. Her stilettos are tall but her hair is taller, and she can strike intimidating poses that would break a normal person's back. The Henchwomen's Union had its own back broken by the bosses, and is now more of informal underground thing, but it still hooks her up with real deal bad guys. She'll kill without a second thought for her boss, but she's only one bad day away from turning her gun on him. It might even happen accidentally, since he and the heroes dress exactly the same. Ferra somehow has a heavy metal soundtrack even when there's no music playing.

Ally got a degree in psychology but until she can afford grad school, she gigs as a henchwoman. Her bosses are sillicon valley dickheads, but the first one to offer her real benefits will have her loyalty for life. Thanks to the resurgence of the Henchwomen's Union, Ally gets to wear big stompy boots instead of high heels, but she still has to wear a big day-glo logo on her leather jacket that might as well be a target sign. Her hobbies include pop culture conventions, smoking weed and credit card fraud.

Favorite books on Art ? or Art History ? :)))

Unfortunately when people ask me about books on art and other books in general, often my recommendations are titles in Polish, by local publishers, so I don't think the answer will be helpful to most of you. I have recently started collecting more books about my favorite art in English, so here are some that I own in my collection:

Beyond the Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy

Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The Portraits of Women (by V&A)

Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence

The Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood by Jan Marsh

King Ludwig I's Gallery of Beauties (Works of Joseph Karl Stieler)

The Pre-Raphaelite Language of Flowers

Van Gogh (by Taschen)

Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood ‘The Valkyrie’s Vigil’, Edward Robert Hughes http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/persistence-myth/

Night and Sleep,1878 by English painter Evelyn De Morgan, one of a Pre-Raphaelite sisterhood

pre-raphaelite sisterhood👶

Demeter mourning Persephone by Evelyn de Morgan (found on Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood)

what's a topic you'd love to infodump about rn like. Is there something on your mind you just think is Really Neat that you wanna share???

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti was written about Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Siddall

for context, Christina Rossetti was the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the most prolific member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Dante was in a relationship with Lizzie Siddall, a prostitute-turned-model, and she was keen to get her own work out there, because her art was good. I've seen it. she was good. but that never happened, and she got sucked further and further into DGR's world. and I've NO doubt that Christina Rossetti saw this. especially since the Public Health Act had just come into play, she would've seen So Many Women like Lizzie.

So when Christina wrote Goblin Market, when she wrote about the girl who faded after having sex with one of the goblins, she was basing that character on Lizzie. on Lizzie, because DGR refused to marry her, at that point. on Lizzie, because not being a virgin at marriage in the 1800s was a fate worse than death, at that point in time. and then Lizzie was saved, by sisterhood. she was brought back. just like how Christina worked in the mid-1800s, at a shelter for 'fallen women'.

Lizzie Siddall died. but Christina Rossetti wanted to save her.

Marianne Stokes (1855–1927), Madonna and Child (c 1907-08), tempera on panel, 80 x 59.5 cm, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, England.

-William and Evelyn De Morgan (1909)

Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919) • Moonbeams Dipping into the Sea • 1910-14 • De Morgan Museum - Canon Hall, Barnsley, UK

“Make Your Lives Beautiful”

~ William and Evelyn De Morgan (1909)

(via Rossetti's Models | Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood)

Like his Pre-Raphaelite brethren, Dante Gabriel Rossetti used live models in his works.  Throughout the course of his career, the same faces grace his canvasses, ranging from family members to lovers.

I forgot Algernon Charles Swinburne was a redhead. Tbh good for him.

“Symbols” by English poetess Christina Rossetti, of the noble Italian Rossetti family, and also sister of famous pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This poem was first published in her 1862 volume, Goblin Market and Other Poems.