A Nightmare

Hidden Meanings

Femmes Fatales

Introduction

Back to Start

The Pre-Raphaelite Portrait

Sandys painted some of the most beautiful Pre-Raphaelite portraits.

His attention to detail made him very popular with his clients who wanted exact and realistic pictures of themselves made, but possibly more popular was the fact that Sandys could make his sitters look like Pre-Raphaelite heroines and heroes. As many of his patrons came from the rich middle-classes that had made their money in industry, this approach seemed to be the perfect antidote to the grim reality of industrial factories which lay behind their lifestyle. Looking like a mythical figure could suggest a more spiritual side to even the most hardened factory owner!

In this portrait of ‘Adelaide Bedingfeld’ Sandys has shown her in front of a beautiful classical Italian landscape. The crown of laurels on Adelaide's head and the castle in the background suggest that she could quite easily be a mythical heroine or figure from a story rather than a real person.