Pre-Raphaelite Marie Spartali Stillman Breaks World Record

Both a talented artist and muse of Pre-Raphaelite painters, British Marie Spartali Stillman (1844-1927) figures in many of the movement's major works. Coming from a prominent 19th-century Anglo-Greek family, Stillman made her debut in Ford Madox Brown's workshop in 1865, before exhibiting two years later at the Dudley Gallery, where she presented three watercolours of female figures. The Spartali family, which included the great patron of Burne-Jones and Rossetti, Constantine Ionides and his family, as well as Maria Zambaco, model and mistress of Burne-Jones, had a lasting impact on the history of Victorian art.

The Enchanted Garden is a watercolour painted by Stillman in 1889, at the height of her career and during one of her most productive periods, when she created The First Meeting of Petrarch and Laura (collection private), a work that shows the obvious influence of Italian literary subjects on her work at the time. The Enchanted Garden was presented at the New Gallery in London in the year it was created, succeeding two other works with Dantesque themes that were dear to it. Stillman's penchant for these subjects is partly due to her friendship with the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (husband of the muse Elizabeth Siddal), but also to her stays in Italy.

See also: On and Off the Canvas: Art's Most Famous Muses

Wife of American diplomat and journalist William James Stillman from 1871, Marie Stillman had to adopt an itinerant life, between America, Italy and England. When her husband's unstable career left them in a difficult financial situation, she supplemented their income by selling her works. The Enchanted Garden was created when the painter had developed a sharp commercial spirit: at the end of the 1880s, it was she who provided for the needs of her husband and their six children. 

With a dimension of 78 by 101 cm, this watercolour, with its vivid colours and vibrant composition, is among the most ambitious of her works. Acquired by a distant relative of her husband in 1900, during a trip to Boston, the painting then disappeared until its rediscovery in the 1980s. Presented at Christie's during the sale of The Joe Setton Collection in December 2020, The Enchanted Garden sold for £874,500, becoming not only Stillman's most expensive work, but also the most expensive painted by a Pre-Raphaelite female artist. 

See also: 12 Women Who Rocked the Art World

The striking painting takes up the theme of the fifth short story of the collection The Decameron, by the Florentine writer Boccace. In the story, Messer Ansaldo, a nobleman from Udine, falls desperately in love with Madonna Dianora, the virtuous wife of another man. In order to repel his persistent advances, Dianora promises him that she will give herself to him if he manages to reveal, in the middle of winter, "a garden of green grass, flowers and flowering trees, as if it was the month of May”, but if he fails, he must never approach it again. Ansaldo then enlisted a necromancer to take on the challenge and earn her love.

The Enchanted Garden illustrates the precise moment of Ansaldo's success. While a snowy backdrop is visible beyond the arches of the building, the interior reveals a bountiful garden dotted with fruit and flowers. Unlike her stunned assistants, Dianora seems melancholy, even horrified, at the idea of ​​honouring her promise. Nonetheless, the tale ends on a happy note, as Dianora confesses her fault to her husband and will ultimately be released from her promise by Ansaldo.

The works of Pre-Raphaelite painters and the last romantics of The Joe Setton Collection reached a total of £5,635,000 for 80% of its lots sold and 71% of lots auctioned above their high estimate. In addition to Marie Spartali Stillman's record, the auction established ten new world records, including that of artist John Byam Shaw, with The Queen of Hearts, which sold for £790,500 pounds.

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