The “sister arts” of writing and literature will forever be a compelling and mutually beneficial inspiration to each other. When the written word meets portraiture, two great cultural forces combine to paint a picture of the artist who made them and the environment in which they worked. Nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelite artists effectively used Shakespearean heroines as subjects through whom to reflect Victorian notions of womanhood. However, their depictions left little room for any kind of female agency, turning the women into objects of this moment in time rather than fully realized literary characters.

In my project, completed for my May 2024 capstone, I explored the art-historical context in which Pre-Raphaelite Shakespeare portraiture was made and offered my own artistic interpretation. The outcome made it clear that although Pre-Raphaelites and contemporary artists may approach depicting Shakespearean heroines very differently, either way they are bound to comment on femininity. The cultural mythos that follows these characters is simply too prominent for them not to, and the influence of visual art, literature, and society on one another too great.