Detail
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Femmes Fatales
Although several Pre-Raphaelite artists admired female virtue, they were also intrigued by the figure of the femme fatale. Shearer West has suggested that in their voluminous mass and their dominant sexual presence, Rossetti’s women of the 1860s are an early example of the femme fatale. Rossetti’s The Question (The Sphinx) represents a mythological femme fatale, whilst his Lady Lilith depicts the sexual first wife of Adam.
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Frederick Sandys, Morgan Le Fay and Sandys, Medea. Both of these oil paintings represent a sorceress.
What visual signifiers does the painter include to indicate that the character is a femme fatale?
What are the sources for both of the paintings?
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Further Reading:
West, Shearer, Fin de siècle: art and society in an age of uncertainty. London: Bloomsbury, 1993
Discuss this collection
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