page_title: Marie Spartali Stillman
section_title: Other influences and career impacts
hierarchical_section_title: Marie Spartali Stillman / Art and career / Style / Other influences and career impacts
caption_attribution_description: English: In 1864 Marie Spartali Stillman, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, and part of the large Greek community in London, began training as a painter with Ford Madox Brown. She developed a unique technique using multiple layers of watercolor and gouache (opaque watercolor) which looks very similar to an oil painting in finish. This scene depicts a farmyard on the Isle of Wight where her family had a vacation home. (see references)
context_page_description: Marie Euphrosyne Spartali, later Stillman, was a British member of the second generation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Of the Pre-Raphaelites, she had one of the longest-running careers, spanning sixty years and producing over one hundred and fifty works. Though her work with the Brotherhood began as a favorite model, she soon trained and became a respected painter, earning praise from Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others.
context_section_description: In 1873 both her young daughter, Euphrosyne "Effie," and her sister Christina fell ill. Stillman wrote to Ford Madox Brown that she was preoccupied with their health and felt "too weak to paint." She later clarified that whenever she did work she found herself depicting her sister in a grim state. Because of this, she took some time off painting, however Madox-Brown always speculated that she stopped because of her husband's jealousy over her successful career and continued relationship with himself. 
  Alongside her husband, Spartali-Stillman lived in Florence, Italy for a number of years. She took great inspiration from the city around her which can be seen most prominently in her subject matter. Being in the city of Dante Alighieri, she depicted numerous scenes from the Divine Comedy, focusing in particular on the romance between Dante and Beatrice. 
  Though separated from her peers, Spartali-Stillman maintained her correspondence with the PRB and Rosetti in particular who shared her love of Dante.
caption: Farm Scene
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