Sickly and melancholic during the last decade of her life, Siddal died of a laudanum overdose in 1862 during her second year of marriage to Rossetti.

Her parents were Charles Crooke Siddall, and Elizabeth Eleanor Evans, from a family of English and Welsh descent.

[9] The remainder of the Siddall children were born in Southwark: Lydia, to whom she was particularly close; Mary, Clara, James and Henry.

[10] Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall "received an ordinary education, conformable to her condition in life" and first "read Tennyson ... by finding one or two poems of his on a piece of paper" that had been wrapped around some butter.

Siddal made such an impression on Allingham that he recommended her as a possible model to his friend Deverell, who was struggling with a large oil painting based on the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night.

[21] In any case, Deverell later described Siddal as "magnificently tall, with a lovely figure, and a face of the most delicate and finished modelling ... she has grey eyes, and her hair is like dazzling copper, and shimmers with luster.

In his Twelfth Night painting, he based Orsino on himself, Feste on his friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Viola/Cesario on Siddal.

[24] According to William Michael Rossetti, Dante Gabriel's brother, "Deverell drew another Viola from her, in an etching for The Germ.

[27] William Holman Hunt painted her in A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids (1849–1850)[25] and Two Gentlemen of Verona, Valentine Rescuing Sylvia From Proteus (1850 or 1851).

[34][33] As Anna Solomon wrote, "she depicts herself looking harsher, angrier and less attractive than the languid Siddal of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

"[35] From 1855 to 1857, art critic John Ruskin subsidised her career and paid £150 per year in exchange for all the drawings and paintings she produced.

Constance Hassett wrote that "Siddal's poetry ranges from the perfectly realized ballad narrative, to its opposite, the overheard lyric, and to something in between, the made-to-be heard monologue.

"[12] Critic William Gaunt wrote that "Her verses were as simple and moving as ancient ballads; her drawings were as genuine in their medieval spirit as much more highly finished and competent works of Pre-Raphaelite art.

[41] Rossetti gave Siddal the nickname "Lizzie" when she entered the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood circle, and "the diminutive enhanced her youthful, dependent role".

[60] Beginning in 1853, Rossetti used Siddal as a model for a series of Dante-themed paintings, including The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice (1852), Beatrice Meeting Dante at a Marriage Feast, Denies him her Salutation (1851), Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah (1855), and, perhaps his most famous portrait of her, Beata Beatrix (1864–1870), which he painted as a memorial after her death.

[63] Siddal appears to have believed, with some justification, that Rossetti was always seeking to replace her with a younger muse, which contributed to her later depressive periods and illness.

[28][76] Shortly before their marriage, Rossetti produced a famous portrait of Siddal, Regina Cordium or The Queen of Hearts (1860).

[79] When Siddal's health improved, they honeymooned in Paris and Boulogne in the latter half of 1860,[55] then returned to the Chatham Place residence that they expanded into an adjoining house.

This may, I suppose, have come from the father; for the mother was a healthy woman, living on til past ninety.It was thought that she suffered from tuberculosis,[66] but some historians believe an intestinal disorder was more likely.

"[4] The coroner ruled her death as accidental; however, there are suggestions that Rossetti found a suicide note, with the words "Please look after Harry" (her invalid brother, who may have had a slight intellectual disability), supposedly "pinned ... on the breast of her night-shirt.

"[89][90] Consumed with grief and guilt Rossetti allegedly went to see Ford Madox Brown who is supposed to have instructed him to burn the note.

[28] Since suicide was illegal and considered immoral, it would have brought scandal on the family and barred Siddal from a Christian burial.

[91] Siddal was buried with her father-in-law Gabriele on 17 February 1862 in the Rossetti family grave in the west side of Highgate Cemetery.

— Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "The House of Life", Ballads and Sonnets[97] Their home at 14 Chatham Place was demolished[98][99] and is now covered by Blackfriars Station.

[108][33] Writer and curator Jan Marsh wrote that those fascinated by Siddal included Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, and Arthur Symons.

"[42] Along with Algernon Charles Swinburne, Siddal and Rossetti are the subjects of "How They Met Themselves", which is part of The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman, drawn by Michael Zulli, and published in Vertigo: Winter's Edge #3 (2000).

In it, a dying Lizzie drugged with laudanum has a last dream or vision in which the trio takes a train trip to a forest "where they each would see their true love".

[115] Siddal is depicted on one of the plates in the Famous Women Dinner Service by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, (1932–1934), commissioned by the art historian, Kenneth Clark.

[120] The English guitarist-composer Stephen Yates [d] was moved to compose a suite for solo classical guitar entitled The Four Muses of Mr Rossetti, based on his interest in the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and their wide ranging influence on the culture of the period.

The four movements of the suite are dedicated to Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth, Jane Morris and Alexa Wilding.