In An Artist's Studio By Christina Rossetti Summary

Christina Rossetti's poem, “In An Artist’s Studio”, explores how men foster a need for control by creating unrealistic expectations for women through their fantasies. Through the use of repetition, contrast of imagery, and symbolism, Rossetti guides us through the gallery inside of an artist’s mind, portraying the fantasies that give him a sense of control over the women he creates.
Rossetti’s use of repetition emphasizes the idea that the artist is able to set expectations for women by controlling who they are, what they do, and what they feel by recreating them through art. Rossetti shows us a woman who is repeatedly being depicted in the artist’s paintings. Repetition of the word “one” (1,2,8) conveys a sense of homogenization: many women

Rossetti shows us the woman being painted as many different things. Although she is just a painting, the woman symbolizes how the artist views women in real life: as objects. Irony is used when the woman is painted as “a queen”(5). She is put on a pedestal in a position of power, yet she is only described as being “in [an] opal or ruby dress”(5), cementing her role as an ornament. The ruby symbolizes passion and perhaps promiscuity. Opal is a white stone that reflects many colors. White symbolizes purity; while the different colors reflected symbolize how her meaning can change, and how the artist controls her identity and can make her fit any persona he desires. The woman is also depicted as a “nameless girl”(6), indicating her identity is not important to the artist. It also shows that he does not personally know the women he’s painting, but only their looks, affirming that he bases their value off of their appearances. Lastly, the artist portrays a woman as “a saint [and] an angel”(7) and compares her to the “moon”(11), an allusion to Artemis, the goddess of virginity. In this painting, she is established as a pure virgin, which was a requirement of the time period Rossetti lived in. However, because it is one of the fantasies the artist creates, and the poem antagonizes him, this line also expresses the idea that a woman’s purity should not define her. He makes the innocent virgin and the licentious queen the only ways women can be viewed. Yet, they are the same to him. Lacking depth, their physical description is the only thing giving them any meaning. Rossetti describing the portraits conveys the idea that no matter the position in society; or what their actual personalities are like, women are just blank canvases for men to project their fantasies onto. Uninterested in a real person, the artist worships the idea of a