Woman Combing Her Hair

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date: 1864

Materials: Pencil

In 1859, Rossetti began to develop a long series of paintings (in watercolour as well as oil) of half-length female figures, often with little or no specific subject.

The model for this drawing was Fanny Cornforth, by this time Rossetti'smistress and housekeeper at Tudor House, Cheyne Walk, in Chelsea. It is handled with great vigour and freedom, and demonstrates how Rossetti's technique was constantly widening and improving. As befits their subject, Rossetti's drawings of Fanny have a strength and potency almost equal to the restrained passion evident in his studies of Elizabeth Siddal made ten years earlier.