DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

(1828-1882)

Fanny Cornforth (study for Fair Rosamund)

1861

coloured chalks on paper

32.2 x 25.9 cm

signed: monogram, 1861

P.297

A study for the oil of the same year, (Surtees no.128) in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Probably based on the ballad Fair Rosamund by Thomas

Deloney (?1560-1600).

Rosamund Clifford (c.1139-76) awaits the arrival of her lover, Henry II, in 1174. In the story a secret retreat was built for her in the centre of a maze at Woodstock, near Oxford. She was finally discovered by Queen Eleanor, who had her put to death.        

Fanny Cornforth (1824-1906) became Rossetti’s model in 1858. She also became his mistress before his wife’s death, later acting as a sort of housekeeper in Cheyne Walk. She was described by William Rossetti as having 'no charm or breeding, education or intellect'; Swinburne referred to her as a ‘bitch’. She is also noted though for having an affectionate nature, married twice and finally grew so stout that William Bell Scott described her as 'that three waisted creature'.

EJ/JM

PROVENANCE: Mrs Arthur Clifton; sold on her behalf as ‘Miss Ford’ to the Gallery by Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, July 1959.

EXHIBITIONS: The English Tradition: an exhibition of watercolours from two private collections, Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, 1972, no.69; Rossetti, Tokyo, Bunkurama Museum of Art, Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Art Gallery, Kurume, Ishibashi Museum of Art, 1990-91, no.24.

REFERENCES: D. Sonstroem, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Fair Lady, W.U.P, 1970, repr. facing p.63; V. Surtees, Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828 –1882 The Paintings and Drawings A Catalogue Raisonné, 1971, vol. I (text), p.81, no.128A, illus. vol. II (plates), no.199; M. Henderson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1973, illus. p.12; S. Wildman, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Tokyo, 1990, pp.28 & 71, no.24, illus. no.24; G. Daly, Pre-Raphaelites in love, 1989, illus. as Study for Fair Rosamund; L. Lambourne, The Aesthetic Movement, 1996, repr. p.190.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.