On this day...

Poet and artist Elizabeth Siddal died in 1862, at the age of 32. Siddal developed a love of poetry from a young age. It is said that this stemmed from discovering a portion of a Tennyson work on a piece of newspaper used to wrap butter. Yet at the start of her life, Siddal had not the means to pursue such a career, and instead she worked in a hat shop. It was here that she, 'a most beautiful creature with an air between dignity and sweetness', was discovered by the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, and thus she went on to become one of the famous muses in the art world.

Painted by all three, William Holman Hunt, John Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, it was arguably to Millais that she made the greatest contribution. Whilst posing for his masterpiece, 'Ophelia', she endured icy temperatures float in a bath tub, eventually contracting pneumonia for her efforts. Yet it was Rossetti that she was to marry, and as well as considering aiding his work, she began to develop her own career, even finding funding in the form of art critic John Ruskin. However, following the marriage, Siddal became depressed and addicted to laudanum, a drug that was to tragically end her life. Rossetti buried her with a manuscript of poetry, which he then later published.

On this day...

Scottish critic and writer Thomas Carlyle died in 1881, at the age of 85. Born to a strict Calvanist family, Carlyle was brought up in the expectation that he would become a preacher. Yet Carlyle lost his faith at university, whilst retaining the sense of Christian morality; and so he became the embodiment of the Victorian struggle between religion and science. Following the study of German literature, including Goethe and Fichte, Carlyle began to persue his own literary career, publishing his first major work, 'Sartor Resartus', in 1832. Preceding the development of New England Transcendentialism, the work was an attack on English Utilitarianism, using a fictional German 'philosopher of clothes' to explore them.

Meanwhile, Carlyle had married Jane Welsh, a woman of letters; yet their union was said to be unhappy. Indeed novelist Samuel Butler said of them; 'It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs Carlyle marry one another, and so make only two people miserable and not four'. Carlyle's works, including 'The French Revolution' and 'Heroes and Hero Worship', would go on to influence later commentators, such as John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold.

On this day...

English art and social critic John Ruskin died in 1900, at the age of 80. Ruskin showed an aptitude for writing from a young age, and by 15 he was contributing to several well known publications, including the 'Magazine of Natural History', and the 'Architectural Magazine'; the latter  under the pen name κατα φυσιν - 'according to nature'. Donning another pen name, of 'A Oxford Graduate', Ruskin published the first of his important works, 'Modern Painters', in which he argued the value of contemporary landscape painters such as Turner, over those of the post-Renaissance period. Yet perhaps he is more well known for his connections to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; supporting Rossetti, Hunt and Millais, until the latter married his wife, who had been granted divorce on account of impotency on Ruskin's part. Ruskin then changed his focus from art, to social theory. Greatly inspired by friend and critic Thomas Carlyle, he started to explore capitalism and its downfalls, influencing the development of both the Labour Party, and Christian Socialism. Ruskin was, as Tolstoy describes him, 'one of those rare men who think with their heart' and he has left a lasting legacy, even including the addition of the term pathetic fallacy to the language.

On this day...

English writer Charles Lutwig Dodgson, better known by pseudonym Lewis Carroll, died in 1898. Perhaps unusually for an author, Carroll was first an extremely proficient mathematician. Having attended Rugby school, he gained an Oxford place, and went on to achieve a first class honours and subsequent professorship. Shortly after, Carroll's work started to appear in national publications. Mostly of a humourous nature, it was printed in magazines ranging from 'The Comic Times' to 'The Oxford Critic'. It was from this that Carroll launched himself fully in art, becoming immersed in numerous forms, from literature itself, to photography and even inventions; an early variety of Scrabble has been attributed to his name. He also mixed with the preminent artistic crowd of the day, becoming friends with critic John Ruskin, and Dante Rossetti, John Everet Millais and William Hunter of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Yet, of course his favourite medium was writing and he contributed significantly to the genres of fantasy and children's literature. As a writer of prose, he will be best remembered for the frequently adapted 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', yet as a poet, his most famous contribution was the nonsensical work, 'The Jabberwocky'.

On this day...

Marcel Proust, French novelist and essayist, died in 1922. Born in 1871, just after the Franco-Prussian War, much of Proust's childhood corresponded with the rise of France's Third Republic; a theme that later found its way into many of his works. He wrote from an early age, contributing to numerous journals while he was still at school and even founding his own literary review, 'Le Banquet'. Fascinated by English social critic contemporary John Ruskin, Proust began to translate Ruskin's works into French; yet his poor command of English hampered him, and instead Proust used him to enhance his own theories on art, and the role of art within society. His most famous work, 'In Search of Lost Time', often considered the definitive modernist novel, incorporates themes of time, space and memory. He died in 1922, aged 51.