In Christina Rossetti's poem "In An Artist's Studio," the narrator describes the paintings in a male artist's studio. They all have the same subject: a woman, a "nameless girl" in various dresses, either sitting, leaning, or walking. The narrator states that every painting has the same meaning. Rossetti writes:
"A saint, an angel--every canvas means
The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night,"
The artist is painting a woman that perhaps he once loved or admired from a far, but it seems that he never truly knew her. He sees how she looks, the clothes she wears and the things that she does, but he is unable to portray her as she truly is. Instead, he paints her through the lens with which he sees her. This causes her to become little more than an object or subject of his art, but lends little insight into the actual person within the subject.
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