Fanny Cornforth

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date: 1868

Materials: Red chalk; in original frame

Fanny Cornforth reached her zenith as Rossetti's model in the oil painting 'The Blue Bower' of 1865, now in the Barber Institute at Birmingham University. This and other images of her, such as this outstanding chalk drawing, have little real purpose other than as celebrations of her physical beauty, not least her "large lovely arms and neck like a tower".