View source for Fanny Cornforth

{{short description|English artists model (1835–1909)}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}

{{Infobox artist
| name          = Fanny Cornforth
| image         = FannyCornforth_Rossetti.jpg
| caption       = ''Fanny Cornforth'' by [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] c 1865 Pencil on paper
| birth_name    = Sarah Cox
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=yes|1835|01|03}}
| birth_place   = [[Steyning]], [[Sussex]], England
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1909|02|24|1835|01|03}}
| death_place   = [[Graylingwell Hospital]], [[Chichester]], England
| field         = [[Model (art)]], [[Housekeeper (servant)]]
| movement      = [[Pre-Raphaelites]]
| works         = Portrayed by Rossetti many times in pencil on paper; less frequently in red chalk ([[sanguine]]), 1860s and 1870s.  Also model for Edward Burne-Jones and J. R. Spencer Stanhope.
|  
}}

[[File:Fanny Cornforth Hughes 1863.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Fanny Cornforth]]
[[File:Bocca Baciata, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.jpg|thumb|''[[Bocca Baciata]]'', 1859]]
'''Fanny Cornforth''' (born '''Sarah Cox'''; 3 January 1835 &ndash; 24 February 1909) was an English artist's model, and the [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]] and muse of the [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelite]] painter [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]]. Cornforth performed the duties of [[Housekeeper (domestic worker)|housekeeper]] for Rossetti. In Rossetti's paintings, the figures modelled by Fanny Cornforth are generally rather voluptuous, differing from those of other models such as [[Alexa Wilding]], [[Jane Burden|Jane Morris]] and [[Elizabeth Siddal]].

==Biography==
===Early life===
Cornforth, born '''Sarah Cox''', on 3 January 1835, at [[Steyning]], Sussex, was the daughter of Jane, ''née'' Woolgar (''bap''. 1814, ''d''. 1847) and William Cox (''bap''. 1814, ''d''. 1859), a [[journeyman]] [[blacksmith]]. She was baptised on 1 February 1835.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-58350|title=Cornforth [other married names Hughes, Schott], Fanny [née Sarah Cox] (1835–1909), artists' model and intimate companion of Dante Gabriel Rossetti|last=Whittick|first=Christopher|date=2004-09-23|volume=1|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58350}}</ref> [[File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Fair Rosamund.jpg|thumb|''Fair Rosamund'', by Rossetti, modelled by Fanny Cornforth, 1861]] She was a general servant in the household of James and Louisa Worger, who had teenage children.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Drewery |first1=Anne |last2=Moore |first2=Julian |last3=Whittick |first3=Christopher |date=2001 |title=Re-presenting Fanny Cornforth: The makings of an historical identity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41615066 |journal=The British Art Journal |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=3–15 |jstor=41615066 |issn=1467-2006}}</ref>

===Relationship with Rossetti===
Cornforth met Rossetti in 1856, and became his model and mistress in the absence of [[Elizabeth Siddall]] whom Rossetti married in 1860. Many biographers presumed Siddall disliked Cornforth, but there is no proof that Siddall even knew of her existence. Cornforth's first role was as to model the head of the principal figure in the painting ''[[Found (Rossetti)|Found]]'', which she later described, saying he "put my head against the wall and drew it for the head of the calf picture".<ref>Marsh, Jan (1994). ''Pre-Raphaelite women : images of femininity in Pre-Raphaelite art''. London: Artus Books, p.84.</ref>

Three months after Rossetti's wedding, Cornforth married mechanic Timothy Hughes, but the relationship was short lived. The couple separated. It is not known for certain when she adopted the name "Fanny Cornforth",<ref>Gaunt, W, ''The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy'' (1968); Marsh, Jan, ''Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood'' (1985).</ref> but Cornforth was the name of her first husband's stepfather.<ref name = jil>Jill Berk Jiminez, ''Dictionary of Artists' Models'', Routledge, 2013, pp.129-31.</ref>

After Siddall's death in 1862, Cornforth moved into the widowed Rossetti's home as his housekeeper. The affair between them lasted until Rossetti's death. For much of the time Rossetti was engaged in an off-and-on relationship with [[Jane Morris]] who was married to his colleague, [[William Morris]]. Their relationship was not made public but his relationship with Cornforth was.

Cornforth came from the lower/rural working class of English society. Her coarse accent and lack of education shocked Rossetti's friends and family. Rossetti's brother [[William Michael Rossetti]] praised her beauty, but said "she had no charm of breeding, education, or intellect".<ref name = "stey">[http://steyningmuseum.org.uk/boxfiles/ttcox2.html Steyning Museum: Fanny Cornforth]</ref> Many never accepted her and 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. His pet name for her was "My Dear Elephant" and she called him "Rhino". When they were apart, he drew cartoons of elephants and sent them to her, often signing himself "Old Rhinoceros".<ref>[[Gordon H. Fleming]], ''That ne'er shall meet again: Rossetti, Millais, Hunt'', Joseph, 1971, p.387.</ref>

After Rossetti's health started to decline seriously, his family became more directly involved in his life. Cornforth was forced to leave Rossetti's house in 1877.<ref name = mae/> Rossetti paid for a house for her nearby, writing to her "You are the only person whom it is my duty to provide for, and you may be sure I should do my utmost as long as there was a breath in my body or a penny in my purse."<ref name = "stey"/> He gave her several of his paintings, ensuring that her legal ownership was documented.

===Second marriage===
Cornforth's estranged husband died in 1872. While separated from Rossetti, she became involved with John Schott, a publican from a family of actors. Schott divorced his first wife, who was already living in a bigamous marriage with another man, to marry her. He married Fanny almost immediately after the divorce, in November 1879. The couple ran the Rose tavern in [[Jermyn Street]], Westminster, London.<ref name = jil/> Cornforth nevertheless repeatedly returned to Rossetti to nurse him, accompanying him to [[Cumbria]] in 1881. After Rossetti's death, she and her husband opened a Rossetti gallery in 1883 to sell some of the works she owned.<ref name = jil/> Her husband John died in 1891, after which she lived with her stepson Frederick. During this period she was visited by Rossetti collector [[Samuel Bancroft]], who was able to buy paintings and other memorabilia from her. Her correspondence with Bancroft is held as part of the collection at the [[Delaware Art Museum]].<ref name = "stey"/>

===Final years===
After the death of her stepson in 1898, she moved back to Sussex to stay with her husband's family. By 1905 she was apparently suffering from [[dementia]], and was being cared for by her sister-in-law, the actress [[Helen Ernstone#Family|Rosa Villiers]], who put her in the Workhouse in West Sussex against her will.<ref name = mae>[http://fannycornforth.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/fanny-found.html Walker, Kirsty, "Fanny Found", ''The Kissed Mouth'' Thursday, 19 March 2015]</ref> On 30 March 1907 she was admitted to the [[Graylingwell Hospital|West Sussex County Lunatic Asylum]], the records of which state that she was suffering from "senile mania, confusion, weak-mindedness and an inability to sustain a rational conversation, a poor memory and sleeplessness." She remained at the asylum for the rest of her life. After a fall that broke her arm in September 1907 she began to decline and contracted [[bronchitis]] in September 1908. On 24 February 1909 she died of [[pneumonia]] aged 74. She was buried in the district cemetery in a common grave paid for by the asylum.<ref name = mae/> The discovery about her final days was first made at West Sussex Record Office by Christopher Whittick, the biographer of Fanny Cornforth for the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (ODNB).<ref>''Mystery of Fanny's final resting place finally solved'', Neil Vowles, The Argus, 19 April 2015</ref> Shortly afterwards, Kirsty Stonell Walker, the author of ''Stunner: The Fall and Rise of Fanny Cornforth'', found similar.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/apr/13/discovered-lost-grave-pre-raphaelite-beauty-modelled-for-rossetti Kennedy, Maeve, "From siren to asylum: the desperate last days of Fanny Cornforth, Rossetti's muse", ''The Guardian'' Monday 13 April 2015]</ref>

==Role of Fanny Cornforth in Pre-Raphaelite art==
She sat for circa 60 oils, watercolours, pastels or pencil drawings by Rossetti. These include:
[[File:Rossetti lady lilith 1867.jpg|thumb|''[[Lady Lilith]]'', 1867. ]]
* ''[[Bocca Baciata]]'', by Rossetti (1859);
*[[:Image:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 'Fanny Cornforth', graphite on paper, 1869.jpg|''Fanny Cornforth'', graphite on paper]] (1859);
* ''Lucrezia Borgia'', by Rossetti (1861);
* ''[[:Image:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Fair Rosamund.jpg|Fair Rosamund]]'' (1861);
* ''Fazio's Mistress (Aurelia)'' (1863–1873);
* ''The Blue Bower'' (1865);
* ''[[Lady Lilith]]'' (1867), first version. In 1873, her features were replaced by those of [[Alexa Wilding]];
* ''[[Found (Rossetti)|Found]]'' (1869), unfinished. 
*

A small circular oil painting, 9{{frac|3|4}} inches in diameter, made in 1862 by Rossetti and now at the [[Royal Academy]], [[London]], is unusual in that it presents a straightforward portrait of Cornforth.

Rossetti substituted<ref>Spencer-Longhurst, Paul ''The Blue Bower: Rossetti in the 1860s'' (2006)</ref> the features of another model, [[Alexa Wilding]] for Fanny Cornforth in ''Lady Lilith'' (1864–1868).

A few fine finished coloured chalk portraits include one drawn in 1874 on pale green paper, 22 x 16 in. [[Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery]]. [http://www.rossettiarchive.org/rose/?query=s309] Rossetti Archive S309.

The Rossetti Archive has images of a large proportion of these.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rossettiarchive.org/|title=Rossetti Archive|website=rossettiarchive.org|access-date=2019-12-07}}</ref>

Works by other artists for which Cornforth sat include:

*''[[Sidonia von Bork]]'', by [[Edward Burne-Jones]], 1860.

==Locations of likenesses==
Locations of some of the recorded likenesses<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-58350|title=Cornforth [other married names Hughes, Schott], Fanny [née Sarah Cox] (1835–1909), artists' model and intimate companion of Dante Gabriel Rossetti|last=Whittick|first=Christopher|date=2004-09-23|volume=1|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/58350}}</ref> of Fanny Cornforth:
* D. G. Rossetti, portrait, 1859, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]
* D. G. Rossetti, drawing, c.1860, [[Ashmolean Museum]], Oxford
* D. G. Rossetti, portrait, 1865, [[Barber Institute of Fine Arts]], Birmingham
* D. G. Rossetti, portrait, 1870, [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery]]
* E. Burne-Jones, portrait
* [[John Roddam Spencer Stanhope|J. R. S. Stanhope]], portrait
* Photograph, [[University of Manchester Library]], Charles Fairfax Murray collection, MS 1282 photographs 3
* Photograph, [[Delaware Art Museum]], Wilmington
* Photographs, [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]

==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book
 | last = Daly
 | first = Gay
 | title = Pre-Raphaelites in Love
 | year = 1989
 | publisher = Ticknor & Fields
 | location = New York
 | isbn = 0-89919-450-8
 | url-access = registration
 | url = https://archive.org/details/preraphaelitesin00daly
 }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Marsh
 | first = Jan
 | title = Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood
 | year = 1998
 | orig-year = 1985
 | publisher = Quartet Books
 | location = London
 | isbn = 978-0-7043-0169-6
 }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Stonell Walker
 | first = Kirsty
 | title = Stunner : The Fall and Rise of Fanny Cornforth
 | year = 2006
 | publisher = Lulu Publishing
 | location = USA
 }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Drewery
 | first = Anne
 | title = Re-presenting Fanny Cornforth: The makings of an historical identity
 | year = 2001
 | publisher = With Julian Moore & Christopher Whittick, in The British Art Journal 2001:3
 | location = UK
 }}
* {{cite book
 | last = Rossetti
 | first = Dante Gabriel
 | title = Letters to Fanny Cornforth
 | year = 1940
 | publisher = Johns Hopkins Press; Baum, Paull F (editor)
 | location = Baltimore
 }}

==External links==
* [http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/biog/Corn_F.htm Center for Whistler Studies]{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* [http://www.rossettiarchive.org Rossetti Archive]
* [http://www.preraphaelites.org Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090529144625/http://www.preraphaelites.org/ |date=29 May 2009 }} includes images of Fanny Cornforth

{{Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornforth, Fanny}}
[[Category:1835 births]]
[[Category:1909 deaths]]
[[Category:Women of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:English artists' models]]
[[Category:Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artists' models]]
[[Category:Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood]]
[[Category:Muses (persons)]]