Stunner : The Fall and Rise of Fanny Cornforth

by Kirsty Stonell Walker

The first full length biography of the muse and mistress of Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with details of previously unpublished letters, and recently identified portraits, and details of how this former prostitute assisted in the founding of one of America's foremost art collections.

Genres: Art, Biography, Art History, Pre Raphaelite, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2006

About the author

Kirsty Stonell Walker is a Victorian Studies Academic, specialising in the social history of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. She has researched the life of Fanny Cornforth for over a decade, writing articles and papers on the subject. She also incessantly writes about anything and everything. Honestly, she needs help.

Reviews

[Woofwoof · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanny Cornforth is probably the least known of the three women who dominated the personal and professional life of the painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Elizabeth Siddal (his wife) is seen as the typical Victorian oppressed woman, a talented artist and poet in her own right, driven to an early and tragic death by her husband's lack of commitment and flighty ways. Jane Morris is the archetypal artist's muse: silent, superior, and mysterious, a keeper of many secrets and inspirer of fabulous portraiture. Fanny Cornforth in comparison has been regarded variously as a thief, a liar, a gold digger and a prostitute. Walker has written an excellent account of the life of this lesser regarded muse. She traces her life from its origins in the Sussex market town of Steyning, through her "glory days" in London when she was virtually Rossetti's "partner" for 20 or so years, and finally to her probable end back in Sussex in the early years of the twentieth century. Walker does a valiant job, trying to defend the reputation of her heroine against the various charges which have been levelled against her by Rossetti's biographers. I personally think she succeeds. Life was very hard for a working class woman in London in those days and it is easy to see why money became such an important factor in her life. It is also touching to see the genuine affection which Rossetti and Fanny had for one another. The author (who writes The Kissed Mouth blog) also describes every painting in which Fanny appeared. I greatly enjoyed reading these sections while accessing the images in question on the web. This is an excellent book that will be enjoyed by all pre-raphaelite enthusiasts.

[Catherine T · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Em · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't bother with this book, I must agree with another reviewer that characterized this as a published thesis, and if I had given it a grade it would have been D minus.

It's not just that of all the women who modeled for Dante Gabriel Rossetti that the least is known about Fanny Cornforth, that KSW had such a difficult time with making a good book out of this, it is that KSW is not a good writer at all. There were long run-on sentences that made me want to throw this slim volume across the room. And her lack of some kind of organization of the material is another reason this was so frustratingly amateurish. In fact if I hadn't been so eager to know the least little bit about the woman from Rossetti's Bocca Baciata, Blue Bower and A Sea Spell among others, I would never had finished this 98 page book.

The only thing I found redeeming about this book is that KSW did exhibit a respect for Cornforth she never received in her lifetime.

Fanny Cornforth was torn apart by Rossetti's brother William in the histories of the PRB, and by other Rossetti biographers that appeared shortly after his death. She was characterized as a hanger-on, leech, thief and whore. I should have skipped this book and gone straight to Jan Marsh's book 'Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood'.

[Kirst · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It is quite informative and offers a proper overview of not only Fanny's life, but also of the views towards women in the Victorian period.

My only two complaints about the book are the following:

1) For a book claiming to describe the life of Fanny Cornforth, there is not much focus on Fanny herself. The author often strays from the main topic and seems to give more information about Rossetti and his other women. Though, this could be attributed to the fact that little is known about the "true" Fanny Cornforth, which is a fact the author keeps repeating.

2) This has not so much got anything to do with the contents of the book but the quality of the publication. I found the book to be rather messy. There were quite a few distracting grammatical errors and spelling errors, i.e. missing letters in people's names or superfluous words, in the book which makes me wonder who edited it before it was published (or should I say IF it was edited)

Overall, it is a good start for one's research about Fanny or the Pre-Raphaelite movement in general.

[Moira · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't read the Amazon.com page carefully enough - this is a Lulu.com book, which isn't enough for me to throw it out unlike with some other people, but it wasn't copyedited or apparently even proofread, there are no illustrations, no research with original sources, the analysis of paintings is very limited and there's a lot of conjecture. Suspect this is someone's doctoral thesis put online to make money? or something. Buy Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood instead, which is what I should have done.

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though Alexa Wilding has always been my favorite of the "Stunners", the life of Fanny Cornforth is just as fascinating and indicative of the plight of working-class Victorian women. This was a very interesting read.

[Erin]

There is very little to be found on Fanny, so i'm forward to this biography!
Fanny CornForth

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading Kirsty Walker's second edition of this excellent book on Pre-Raphaelite model and muse Fanny Cornforth about a month ago, and I enjoyed it thoroughly! Kirsty is a dear friend of mine, but I honestly think that even if I had no connection to her I would have enjoyed and appreciated the way she seamlessly blends historic research and fact with an entertaining author voice that never seems to let her love for and bias toward Fanny interfere with her finding of the facts about her life.

[Cate Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book fleshes out some of the mysteries surrounding Fanny Cornforth and how she fit into the Pre-Raphaelite's world. The author obviously cares about her subject: there are facts about the model that I've never heard before, probably because most authors write Fanny off as a prostitute and thief, without really going any farther than that.

However, the book is self-published and thus not professionally edited (I guess) because there are small grammar errors throughout. It's not enough to distract from the content but it was enough to make me wonder about the author's credentials. On her blog she says she has a Master's degree in Victorian art and poetry. Because she obviously knows what she's talking about, I do wish the book had been published by a company that could afford to buy photographs and perhaps round out a few points - such as Rossetti's relationship with other women (ie, Jane Morris).

My final comment is that the author, like so many authors of Pre-Raphaelite biographies, seems to accept other's opinions that both Fanny Cornforth and Lizzie Siddal were faking their illnesses.

In any case, it's a good book for any fan of the Pre-Raphaelites as it does give a tantalising glimpse of a figure we know little about and allows us to see how she may have influenced Rossetti's art.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to agree with those who were greatly disappointed by this book. It’s really more of an academic paper that a solid biography or even a story. It is awkwardly written and apparently unedited—some sentences literally make no sense, you’ll find “it’s” for “its” and missing periods. Most frustrating in a book of this type is the lack of illustrations—there is not a single image in the slim paperback I purchased and many artworks are referenced, requiring me to constantly stop and look them up. It is a sad truth that very little is known about this important model of the Pre-Raphaelite era and the book is full of speculation. What I’d rather see is an imaginative treatment of her, such as what Philippa Gregory has done with many historic figures. I do not recommend this book; I do recommend Jan Marsh’s Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood as a far better treatment of this subject more generally.

[Kasey Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this so i could get rid of it. it was interesting. now i get rid of it.

[Karyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Fanny :(

[Kate Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Enlightening and wonderful to finally get a fuller picture of Fanny. Also thoroughly useful on a recent art history paper.