English

Grade 12
Poetry

In an Artist’s studio- Christina Rossetti

Compiled by Faeeza Adam

Background of the poet:

Christina Rossetti was born in Charlotte

Street London. She had two brothers and
a sister: Dante Gabriel became an
influential artist and poet, and William
Michael and Maria both became writers.
Christina, the youngest and a lively child,
dictated her first story to her mother
before she had learnt to write.
“In an Artist's Studio”
1 One face looks out from all his canvases,

2 One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:

3 We found her hidden just behind those screens,

4 That mirror gave back all her loveliness.

5 A queen in opal or in ruby dress,

6 A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,

7 A saint, an angel—every canvas means

8 The same one meaning, neither more or less.

9 He feeds upon her face by day and night,

10 And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,

11 Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:

12 Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;

13 Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;

14 Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

​ Summary
​ There's only one person depicted in all of this artist's

paintings, one model simply posing in different ways. We

used to come to the studio and find this model concealed

behind those privacy screens over there, where the mirror

reflected her intense beauty. In the paintings, she's

portrayed as a queen in shimmering jewel-colored dresses,

or as a lovely, anonymous girl wearing bright green, or as a

saint, or an angel: every single painting says the same thing

 about her, nothing more and nothing less.

The artist stares hungrily at her painted face all the time,

and the portraits look gently and loyally back at him. In

these paintings, the model is as beautiful as the moon and

happy as sunlight. She's not pale from waiting around or

muted by sadness. In the portraits, she's not the way she

really is now, but the way she was when she was hopeful;

she's not the way she really is now, but the way she is in the

artist's dream-world.

​ “In an Artist's Studio” Themes

​ Art and Objectification

The “Artist” of the poem’s title paints the same model over

and over, always giving his portraits of her “the same one

meaning”: she’s always a “goddess” or a “queen,” the

perfect image of female beauty. But, as the poem’s

observant speaker notes, this is far from the truth about this

model. While she was once young, lovely, and hopeful,

now she’s “wan” and full of “sorrow.” The artist is portraying

her “Not as she is,” then, but rather “as she fills his dream.”

Caught up in his ideal, the artist objectifies his model,

unable to see her as a real person—and leaves her alone

with her all-too-real suffering. This poem is a criticism not

of any one artist in particular (though the painter here does

bear some resemblance to Rossetti’s own brother!), but of a

whole Victorian system of sexism that denied women their

human complexity.

The poem’s speaker, an observer who knows both the artist

and his model, visits the artist’s studio only to be

overwhelmed by all the portraits of this one woman. The

artist is clearly obsessed with this model’s beauty—to the

point that he can’t see anything about her but her lovely

exterior. The speaker underlines just how fixated on this one

woman the artist seems to be by observing that there’s “one

face,” “one selfsame figure,” in “all his canvases.” What’s

more, that face is always presented as a gorgeous “queen,”

“angel,” or “nameless girl”: in other words, an idealised

Victorian icon of female beauty and virtue.

The speaker hints that there’s a problem here when she

notes that this face always has “The same one meaning,

neither more nor less.” The artist has looked endlessly at this

one model’s face, but he always sees the same thing there:

perfect, uncomplicated gorgeousness. In his eyes, it seems,

there’s no other meaningful way for a woman to exist! In

fact, there’s not even more than one way to be beautiful.

The artist’s fixation on this model’s idealised beauty means

that he misses (or ignores) some important truths about the

real-life model’s suffering. In the real world, this model,

whom the speaker knows, has become “wan with waiting”

and “dim” with “sorrow.” But the artist either doesn’t notice

his model’s suffering or doesn’t care. He’s busy “feed[ing]”

on her painted face, like a vampire. Through his paintings,

 she becomes a mere decorative object, one he both

“[feeds] on” and controls: in his portraits, she must always

“[look] back at him” with the same “true kind eyes.”

The artist's idealised, dream-world portraits of the woman

capture all his attention: he sees her “Not as she is, but as

she fills his dream.” In other words, his obsession with her

beauty leads him to objectify his model, seeing her only as

the lovely goddess of his paintings rather than as a real, live

person—and especially not as a real, live person he seems

to have hurt!

His blindness to his model’s human complexity makes him

unwittingly (or callously) cruel. He’s an indictment of a

Victorian perspective on women as a whole: if women must

only be beautiful, virtuous paragons, this poem suggests,

they can’t be full human beings.

​ Analysis:

​ In an Artist’s Studio‘ by Christina Rossetti is a standard

Italian or Petrarchan sonnet that is made up of fourteen

lines and can be separated into one set of eight lines,

called an octave, and one set of six lines, called a sestet.

The first collection of lines presents the basis of the story or

problem, finally the final six provide a conclusion or

answer.
 ​ In this particular instance, the first part of the poem

describes the visual depiction of the artist’s obsession over

a woman, while the second set shows how he has been

consumed mentally by her image and by a happier time in

his life.

​ Analysis of In an Artist’s Studio

​ Lines 1-4
​ One face looks out from all his canvases,

​ One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:

​ We found her hidden just behind those screens,

​ That mirror gave back all her loveliness.

The speaker of ‘In an Artist’s Studio‘ begins the poem by

describing what the inside of an artist’s studio looks like. From

where she is standing she can look around, and take in each

canvas that she sees as well as the way the light falls, and the

obsession that must be inherent in his practice.

While looking around there is one element of the painter’s art

the sticks out most to her, the presence of a single face,

repeated endlessly throughout his studio. It is clear that this

artist does not spend time painting portraits of anyone other

than “her.” She, the subject of his art, “looks out from all his
canvases.” The sitter appears in different forms throughout the

work but she is always “One selfsame figure,” whether she is

“sit[ting], walk[ing] or lean[ing].” While searching for the

repeating female figure, the speaker finds her “hidden”

throughout different canvases, each time she is spotted, she is

lovely.

Lines 5-8
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,

A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,

A saint, an angel — every canvas means

The same one meaning, neither more or less.

The artist is able to render her differently each time he paints

such as, “A queen in opal or in ruby dress.” He has painted her

elegantly, like royalty, a number of times. She is shown in red

and white dresses.

Additionally, the artist has shown her as a “nameless girl,” a

common girl, “in freshest summer-greens” and as an “angel”

and “saint.” It is clear that the artist finds every type of

inspiration in his model and is able to perceive her in every

conceivable form. She is his muse and obsession.

In the final line of this section, the speaker states that no form in

which he has portrayed her, “saint,” “queen,” or peasant girl, is

any more important or meaningful than any other. He would

love her in whatever form she took.

Lines 9-14
He feeds upon her face by day and night,

And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,

Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:

Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;

Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;

Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

In the concluding lines of ‘In an Artist’s Studio‘ the speaker

makes clear to the reader how obsessed and dependent this

artist has become on his muse. She is more than just a passing
love or beautiful face, he actually takes sustenance from her

presence and time spent admiring her. The artist “feeds upon

her face” at every hour of the day and night, and she is always

there, looking out from the paintings with “true kind eyes.” It is

as if she is looking back at him, admiring him in kind.

She is, the speaker states, “Fair as the moon and joyful as the

light.” She is all things, and seems to be more important to the

speaker then life itself. Although time may pass in the artist’s

life, her face and beauty will never wan as she is “waiting”

around in his studio. His paintings will never be inflicted with

“sorrow” so that her face “dim[s].” She will remain

immortalised, just as he sees her, for all time.

It is important to distinguish, in the last lines of the poem, the

way that the artists perceive her, from the way she actually is.

The speaker makes this separation clear as she states that the

way that the artist portrayed her is not the way that she is now.

She is no longer filled with “hope” that shines “bright.” She is not

painted “as she is, but as she fills his dreams.” The artist is

longing for a time when things were the way they used to be,

not as they are now, and the paintings are a reminder of that

time.

Questions:
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