An Artist's Studio

 Christina Rossetti's poem, An Artist Studio, unfolds undeniable truth within its few words. The poem focuses on a male artist and his works of art. Through her descriptions of “a queen in opal”, “a nameless girl in freshest summer-greens”, and “a saint, an angel”, Rossetti makes it apparent that this artist mainly focuses on drawing women. 

Though it is not uncommon during this time to focus art on women, as seen in artworks such as Ophelia and Madonna, Rossetti makes it seem as though this specific artist fetishizes his artworks. Within the lines, “The same one meaning, neither more or less” and “he feeds upon her face by day and night”, shows that the artist is seeing women as an object to his art, rather than art itself. I find this poem quite sad because though there are so many beautiful paintings of women from past eras, the harsh reality is that many of these male painters probably did objectify women. The artworks described in this poem were said to have the same body shape, fair skin, and having “true kind eyes”. When you go back and look at the art from these centuries, many of the women depicted have the same characters. 

I find it sad how throughout history and even today, women have faced objectification; regardless if it's through paintings from the Victorian era, or through advertisements we see today

Ophelia, John Everett Millais