Artist's Model. A voluptuous blonde, she is remembered as the subject of many of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's most noted paintings. Born Sarah Cox into conditions of poverty, little is recorded of her early years, though she apparantly took 'Cornforth' from her first husband. Fanny was limited by her lack of education and thus worked at menial jobs, though evidence indicates that the stories of her having been illiterate and a prostitute constitute an urban legend; according to reports of the day, in 1857 Rossetti spotted her in a crowd and was instantly smitten. The great painter began both a professional and a personal relationship with her, despite an ongoing romance with Elizabeth Siddal that would lead to marriage in 1860, the same year Fanny entered into a quite brief union with a nonentity named Timothy Hughes. Rossetti used her as a model many times while also loaning her out to Edward Burne-Jones, J.R. Spencer Stanhope, and others. Following Elizabeth's suicide-by-opiate-overdose in 1862, the artist moved her in, her status that of servant, model, lover, and social companion, keeping her and appearing with her in public despite her obvious lower caste background making her 'unacceptable' to some of his friends, and remaining more-or-less faithful, at least according to his rather dim lights. As time went on, Fanny's increasing girth limited her usefulness as a model (Venus Verticordia, Rossetti's most overtly erotic work, depicts Alexa Wilding's head on Fanny's body) but Rossetti retained her in his home, playfully calling her 'My Dear Elephant', until he drank himself to death in 1882. After that, Fanny simply disappeared for the next 25 years, though she was apparently cared for by her stepson until his death in 1898, then supported by a somewhat better-off sister-in-law, actress Rosa Villers. Following a steady mental decline, which became severe after 1905, records show that she was admitted to the West Sussex County Lunatic Asylum (later called Graylingwell Hospital) in 1907. Fanny died of pneumonia suffered as a complication of a fall and was buried in a common grave paid for by the Asylum; today, her birthplace is marked by a plaque and her image can be viewed in numerous major museums and private collections. Her story is told in Kirsty Stonell Walker's 2012 "Stunner: The Fall and Rise of Fanny Cornforth".