Study for 'Jephtha's Daughter'

Elizabeth Siddal

Date: c. 1855 - 57

Materials: Pencil

Jephtha's sacrifice

Jephtha was an Israelite commander who waged war against the Ammonites and vowed to sacrifice to God: "whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me" should he return victorious (Judges II:3I); this proved to be his daughter, his only child. Siddal's angular figures evoke some of the anguished tension between father and daughter. Millais took up the subject in 'Jephtha', an oil painting of 1867.

Verso Rossetti

This is the only drawing in the Birmingham collection by Elizabeth Siddal - indeed, it is the only work by any female associate of the Pre-Raphaelites (discounting such Birmingham School followers as Kate Bunce). 

The drawing by Rossetti on the reverse of the sheet is one of four sketches illustrating the 'Ballad of Fair Annie', which Surtees dates to around 1855 and describes as being "for a projected Book of Old English Ballads in which Elizabeth Siddal was also to collaborate".