Alexa Wilding

Alexa Wilding
La Ghirlandata (1873) modelled by Alexa Wilding, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Born	Alice Wilding Surrey, England
Died	25 April 1884(1884-04-25) London, England
Nationality	English
Known for	Model (art)
Notable work	Portrayed by Rossetti many times, 1860s & 1870s.
Movement	Pre-Raphaelites

Alexa Wilding (born Alice Wilding, c. 1847 – 25 April 1884) was one of the favourite models of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, featuring in some of his finest paintings of the later 1860s and 1870s. She sat for more of his finished works than any other of his more well-known muses, including Elizabeth Siddall, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth.

Comparatively little is known about Wilding, while Rossetti's other models, Siddall, Morris and Cornforth, are frequently written about. This is perhaps partly due to the lack of any romantic or sexual connection between the pair, which differentiates Rossetti's relationship with Wilding from those with his other muses.

Alexa Wilding's working-class family originated from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in England, while Alexa herself (then Alice) was born an only child in Surrey in or about 1847. Her father was a piano-maker, while her father's brothers were butchers. According to the 1861 census, when she was 14, Wilding was living at 23 Warwick Lane near Newgate Market in London with her 59-year-old grandmother, two uncles and a cousin. She was a working girl, but her standard of life is not thought to have been terrible for the time, and she could read and write. By the time of her association with Rossetti, she was living with an aunt and working as a dressmaker with ambitions of becoming an actress.

Wilding was first seen by Rossetti in 1865, when she was walking one evening along the Strand. He was immediately impressed by her beauty. She agreed to sit for him the following day for a proposed painting of Aspecta Medusa, but failed to arrive as planned; it is possible that she was put off by the morally dubious reputation of models at that time. Weeks went by, and Rossetti had given up the idea of the painting he had in mind, so important did he consider the look of this specific model to it, when he spotted her again in the street. He jumped from the cab he was in and persuaded her to be led straight back to his studio. He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might also employ her. The two shared a lasting bond; after Rossetti's death in 1882, Wilding, though not particularly financially well off, was said to have travelled regularly to place a wreath on his grave in Birchington-on-Sea.