Fanny Cornforth
British artist's model (1835–1909)
Fanny Cornforth (born Sarah Cox; 3 January 1835 – 24 February 1909) was an English artist's model, and the mistress and muse of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Cornforth performed the duties of 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 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. She was a general servant in the household of James and Louisa Worger, who had teenage children.
“Fanny Cornforth” enters the record as british artist's model (1835–1909). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fanny, Cornforth and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q450551. VIAF identifies the subject as 7103181. The Library of Congress control number is no2004059092. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835, 1909, 1814 and 1847.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fanny Cornforth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.