Christina Rossetti wrote "In an Artist's Studio" in 1856, but it wasn't published until 1896, two years after Rossetti's death. In this reflective sonnet, a speaker visits an artist's studio and finds a vast collection of portraits, all depicting the same gorgeous model. But the speaker knows this model personally—and while these pictures capture this woman's beautiful youth, they ignore the deep sadness of her present-day life. Caught up in his model's idealized loveliness, the artist seems to have missed (or disregarded) the "sorrow" of the living woman in front of him. This is a poem about objectification: in seeing his model only as a beautiful dream-girl, the artist overlooks her humanity.
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The Full Text of “In an Artist's Studio”
1One face looks out from all his canvases,
2One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
3We found her hidden just behind those screens,
4That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
5A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
6A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
7A saint, an angel—every canvas means
8The same one meaning, neither more or less.
9He feeds upon her face by day and night,
10And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
11Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
12Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
13Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
14Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.
The Full Text of “In an Artist's Studio”
1One face looks out from all his canvases,
2One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
3We found her hidden just behind those screens,
4That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
5A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
6A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
7A saint, an angel—every canvas means
8The same one meaning, neither more or less.
9He feeds upon her face by day and night,
10And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
11Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
12Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
13Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
14Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.
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“In an Artist's Studio” Summary
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“In an Artist's Studio” Themes
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Art and Objectification
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “In an Artist's Studio”
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Lines 1-2
One face looks out from all his canvases,
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans: -
Lines 3-4
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness. -
Lines 5-8
A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens,
A saint, an angel—every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more or less. -
Lines 9-10
He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him, -
Lines 11-12
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim; -
Lines 13-14
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.
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“In an Artist's Studio” Symbols
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The Paintings
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“In an Artist's Studio” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Caesura
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End-Stopped Line
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Personification
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Asyndeton
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Repetition
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Simile
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Metaphor
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“In an Artist's Studio” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Canvases
- Selfsame
- Screens
- Wan
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “In an Artist's Studio”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“In an Artist's Studio” Speaker
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“In an Artist's Studio” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “In an Artist's Studio”
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More “In an Artist's Studio” Resources
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External Resources
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Rossetti's Life and Work — Read the Poetry Foundation's short biography of Rossetti, and find links to more of her poems.
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to the poem read aloud—and see an image of one of the paintings Rossetti may have had in mind as she wrote. Rossetti's brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, initially modeled this painting on his mistress, Fanny Cornforth—and later painted over her face to make her look like another woman, Alexa Wilding!
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Pre-Raphaelite Models — Read up on the lives of the Pre-Raphaelite models, women sometimes known as the "Stunners."
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Gender and Power in Rossetti's Poetry — Read an article from the British Library on Rossetti's pioneering feminist vision.
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Pre-Raphaelite Women — Read a review of an exhibit about women in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which quotes "In an Artist's Studio."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
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