In an Artist's Studio

The poem "In an Artist's Studio" written by Christina Rossetti, is about a painter who only paints one face to every women. This is justified by the lines "One face looks out from all his canvases, One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:" The man seems to be fascinated and enchanted by this one version of a women, and seems to be in a delirious, obsessed state. It can be argued that the artist once knew and loved the women he depicts in his work by the ending two lines "Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright; Not as she is, but as she fills his dream." These two lines suggest that the women being depicted is no longer in exsitance, whether in the painters life or in life in general.