In An Artist's Studio Poem

‘In an Artist’s Studio’ was written in 1856 but published posthumously in 1896. The rhyme scheme follows a slightly deviated pattern of the Petrarchan sonnet as ABBAABBACDCDCE with the standard fourteen lines and an iambic pentameter. In accordance with the style of the sonnet form, there is a marked change between the octet and the sestet of the poem, structurally and thematically. However, the most significant digression from the Petrarchan sonnet is the theme itself; usually written to depict an idealised form of love and elaborate praise for their beloved by men whereas Rossetti chose to explore the theme of beauty, and female objectification. The thematic dichotomy is represented through the portrayal of the woman as the artist’s subject; ‘One face’, and ‘One selfsame figure’ depicts the obsession of the artist intent on a monotonous and superficial representation of the female subject, whether she ‘sits or walks or leans’. ‘In an Artist’s Studio’ depicts portraits of the subject of desire as a ‘queen’ or ‘a saint, an angel’, this emulates the Petrarchan sonnets element of high praise for

However, the praise is limited to the depiction and colourful imagery representing the subject as the speaker continues, ‘A queen in opal, or ruby dress / A nameless girl in freshest summer greens’. Unlike the hyperbolic metaphorical praises of the beloved such as in many of Petrarch’s sonnets