This is Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Pre-Raphaelite vision of Lady Lilith, Adam’s wife before Eve and a symbol of malevolence and vanity. Painted in 1867 Rossetti used his lover Fanny Cornforth initially for the face of Lilith but later in 1872-3 changed the face to that of Alexa Wilding.
This picture was a companion piece to Rossetti’s Sibyl Palmifera which he said was to represent the beauty of the soul. Lilith here represents the beauty of the body, along with seductive danger. She cuts a monumental figure brushing her luxuriant hair and is a study in self-absorption.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith is in the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, United States.