"In an Artist's Studio"

Word Count: 261

"In an Artist's Studio" by Christina Rossetti

"Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright; / Not as she is, but as she fills his dream." (Rossetti)

    These lines are the last in the single stanza poem by Christina Rossetti called "In an Artist's Studio." These lines are a commentary on what are actually is - visions of people and no reality. They demonstrate that art is created from within oneself and not from truth. Art is reality that has been twisted and contorted into something else, sometimes more beautiful. This also demonstrates why art is so beautiful - because it is not real. The world is messy and scary, but art does not have to show those parts. Art only shows the serene beauty of the world. Even art that depicts ideas that might show the bad parts of the world, is never as ugly as reality is.

    The message of this poem reminds one of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. While "In an Artist's Studio" was composed many years before Wilde's novel, one can still see the similarities. In the novel, Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with a painting of himself because it was a perfect version of himself. It was not representative of reality until it started to take on the ugliness of Gray. This depicts the lies art creates by disguising the ugly. All art is made to show what one should desire, or, rather, what the artist desires. In this poem one sees the artist does not truly desire the woman he paints, instead he desires his dream version of her. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian desires to be perfect, and that reflects in the art he obsesses over. 

Rossetti, Christina. “In an Artist's Studio.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/146804/in-an-artist39s-studio.

Comments

  1. Kristen SassoFebruary 25, 2021 at 7:23 AM

    I agree that art shows the beauty in the world and even the story of the artist. Art resembles many aspects of life and demonstrates the world. I also agree that when you create art you are able to incorporate what you want into the piece of work. You can choose to illustrate the negatives and positives, just the negatives, or even just the positives.

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  2. Caroline HersheyMarch 1, 2021 at 11:25 AM

    In the first part of this summary I really connected with what you were saying. Even though I did look at this text different to you, your perspective is very interesting. For instance when you mentioned how art can be twisted into something beautiful, I totally agree, I just havnt taken the time to really think about it that way. Cool perspective!

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  3. Madison DreissMarch 1, 2021 at 12:43 PM

    I agree, and really never thought of it this way. Obviously art can be interpreted differently from person to person, but you never really think that the artist is twisting the reality of it. This was a really interesting way to look at it, and showed me another way to look at it.

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