Alexa Wilding. Alexa Wilding was one of the favourite models of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, featuring in some of his finest paintings of the later 1860s and 1870s.
She sat for more of his finished works than any other of his more well-known muses, including Elizabeth Siddall, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth. Comparatively little is known about Wilding, while Rossetti's other models, Siddall, Morris and Cornforth, are frequently written about.
This is perhaps partly due to the lack of any romantic or sexual connection between the pair, which differentiates Rossetti's relationship with Wilding from those with his other muses. Alexa Wilding's working-class family originated from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in England, while Alexa herself was born an only child in Surrey in or about 1847.
Her father was a piano-maker, while her father's brothers were butchers. According to the 1861 census, when she was 14, Wilding was living at 23 Warwick Lane near Newgate Market in London with her 59-year-old grandmother, two uncles and a cousin.
She was a working girl, but her standard of life is not thought to have been terrible for the time, and she could read and write. By the time of her association with Rossetti, she was living with an aunt and working as a dressmaker with ambitions of becoming an actress. Wilding was first seen by Rossetti in 1865, when she was walking one evening along
She sat for more of his finished works than any other of his more well-known muses, including Elizabeth Siddall, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth. Comparatively little is known about Wilding, while Rossetti's other models, Siddall, Morris and Cornforth, are frequently written about.
This is perhaps partly due to the lack of any romantic or sexual connection between the pair, which differentiates Rossetti's relationship with Wilding from those with his other muses. Alexa Wilding's working-class family originated from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in England, while Alexa herself was born an only child in Surrey in or about 1847.
Her father was a piano-maker, while her father's brothers were butchers. According to the 1861 census, when she was 14, Wilding was living at 23 Warwick Lane near Newgate Market in London with her 59-year-old grandmother, two uncles and a cousin.
She was a working girl, but her standard of life is not thought to have been terrible for the time, and she could read and write. By the time of her association with Rossetti, she was living with an aunt and working as a dressmaker with ambitions of becoming an actress. Wilding was first seen by Rossetti in 1865, when she was walking one evening along
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