Fanny Cornforth (c. 1835 – c. 1906)[1] was an English maidservant who became a model and mistress to Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A member of the lower working class of English society, Cornforth performed the duties of housekeeper for Rossetti.
In Rossetti's paintings, Fanny Cornforth appears as a fleshy redhead, in contrast to his more ethereal treatments of his other models, Jane Morris and Elizabeth Siddal.
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She was probably born in the small Sussex town of Steyning, where she was baptised in 1835. Her real name was Sarah Cox, and it is not known for certain when she became known as "Fanny Cornforth", but it was the name of her first husband's stepfather.[2]
Cornforth met Rossetti in 1858, and became his model and mistress in the absence of Elizabeth Siddal. Rossetti married Siddal when she returned in 1860, under the impression that she was dying. Many biographers presume that Siddal disliked Cornforth, but there is no actual proof that Siddal even knew of her existence. In response, less than three months later Cornforth married mechanic Timothy Hughes, but the relationship was short-lived. After Siddal's death in 1862, Cornforth moved in with the newly-widowed Rossetti as his housekeeper. The affair between Rossetti and Cornforth would last until Rossetti's own death. For much of this time Rossetti was engaged in an off-and-on relationship with Jane Morris, but because she was married to his colleague, William Morris, the relationship was not made public.
His relationship with Cornforth, however, was. Cornforth came from the lower/rural working class of English society. Her coarse accent and presumed lack of education often shocked Rossetti's friends and family. Many of them never fully accepted her and at times they pressured Rossetti to end the affair.
Over the course of their relationship, Cornforth gained weight. Much has been made of this by biographers, but the growing girths of both Rossetti and Cornforth was a mutual joke between them. His pet name for her was "My Dear Elephant" and she called him "Rhino". When they were apart, he drew cartoons of elephants for her and sent them to her.
It is not known when or where Fanny died. Apparently suffering from senile dementia, in 1905 she was taken into care by her sister-in-law.
Those in major galleries include:
However, she sat for at least 60 in all by Rossetti, some of them oils, some watercolors, some pastels or in pencil. The Rossetti Archive has images of a large proportion of these.
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