Detail

  • Female figure combing her hair with her right hand. Holds a brush in left hand. Three-quarter profile to the right.
    Hair

    Hair is traditionally associated with sexual power. In the Victorian period it was also an indicator of sexual intimacy as women only wore their hair down in informal situations. Many of Rossetti’s drawings of Fanny depict her with her hair down, testimony to his relationship with her, and Fanny was the model for his Woman Combing her Hair. He had also been fascinated with Lizzie’s hair, famously red, and he described its lurid glow when her body was exhumed in order for him to retrieve some of his poems that he had had buried with her. Rossetti’s Lady Lilith, the first wife of Adam, is shown combing her hair and holding a mirror.
  • A woman in the centre has her hair combed by an attendant behind her. Another man sits in front of her playing a musical instrument.
    What seems to be the role of the woman’s hair in Rossetti’s watercolour Morning Music?

    Is there a connection between hair and music?
    Or women, hair and music?
  • Woman facing left combing her hair and looking in a mirror.
    How many other works by Rossetti of women with their hair down or dressing their hair can you find? How do they compare to the works above?


    Further Reading:
    Gitter, Elisabeth G., ‘The Power of Women’s Hair in the Victorian Imagination’, PMLA. 99: 5 (Oct., 1984), pp. 936-954.

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