Excerpts from Bellany's recent book,
"Wiki-People Who Died At Age 32"

Since 2006, Bellany has scoured Wikipedia for people who died at his exact age. When he was 32, he found 117 figures - some obscure and others notable, who had died at that tender age. In addition to writing up a short biography for each 'character', Bellany created original black and white portraits using illustrations he uncovered on image searches.

"Being the same age as each person I researched (when they died), I naturally felt a strong personal connection to their stories. I compared our accomplishments, social situations, and the eras in which we lived. It was a new way of looking at both history and myself. Now that I have moved on to age 33, I find myself contemplating the strange fact that I have lived longer than Bruce Lee, King Richard III and Alexander the Great. It definitely motivates me to work harder and make a difference."

↓more

・Bruce Lee

・Buzz Sawyer

・Davey Allison

・Dick Turpin

・Eadred of England

・Elizabeth Siddal

・Galeazzo Maria Sforza

・Glen Kidston

・Hernan Gaviria

・Jedediah 'Strong' Smith

・Joseph I

・Keith Godchaux

・Lya De Putti

・Mike Lockwood

・Ota Benga

・Ottavio Bottecchia

・Proof

・Regnier De Graaf

・Steve Chiasson

・Thomas Ashe

・Vladimir of Novgorod

・William Cartwright

・Wyndham Hallswelle

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Wiki-People Who Died At Age 32

Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862)
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's model of choice, Siddal was painted by Walter Deverell, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. An anonymous Wikipedia editor states, "Their ideas about feminine beauty were profoundly influenced by her, or rather she personified those ideals."

Born to a London cutlery maker who (falsely) claimed ties to nobility, it is not known if Elizabeth Siddal received a formal education. She did, however, fall in love with poetry as a young girl after stumbling on a Tennyson poem on a scrap of newspaper that was being used to wrap a piece of bitter butter.

Discovered first by Deverell, Elizabeth's tall, thin body and copper hair deeply impressed the group of painters. Writer William Michael Rossetti (her brother-in-law) described her as, "A most beautiful creature with an air between dignity and sweetness..."

Posing for Millais' famous Ophelia, Siddal spent hours in a cold bathtub after the artist became overly absorbed in his work. Later coming down with pneumonia, Elizabeth's father held the artist responsible, forcing him to pay all related medical bills. Some believe her health never recovered after the incident.

The young Dante Gabriel Rossetti began to paint Elizabeth exclusively. He even went as far as to forbid her from posing for other artists. After they became engaged, he also became her painting teacher. However, as Rossetti was from a much higher social class, he continuously postponed their wedding, knowing that his family would not approve of the match. This wore on "Lizzy", sending her into a spiral of depression and drug addiction. After finally marrying, Siddal had a pregnancy that sadly ended in a still-born daughter. More depressed than ever before, Siddal took a lethal dose of laudanum at the age of 32. It is rumored that she left a suicide note that Rossetti promptly destroyed.

At Siddal's funeral, the grieving Rossetti placed a small volume of highly personal poems in her long red hair. Seven years later, he began to regret this decision. After appealing to the City of London, he had her coffin dug up in the middle of the night. Not only was Elizabeth's corpse still in good condition, so was his unpublished book. It only had one large wormhole through it (this single hole did, however, change the nuance of several of the poems). He published his old poems to poor reviews and was haunted the rest of his life by his decision to exhume his dead wife for personal profit.