Fanny Eaton
Joanna Wells studied painting in London and Paris. She belonged to the circle of the Pre-Raphaelites and exhibited to acclaim for the first time in 1851 when John Ruskin warmly admired her work. Fanny Eaton was a biracial model of Jamaican heritage who posed for Wells and other Victorian artists such as Albert Moore, Frederick Sandys, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. This small study was made in the last year of her life as she prepared a large canvas of Zenobia, the ancient queen of Syria. She died in childbirth before she could complete it.
Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Credit Line: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
1861
Oil on paper laid to linen
17.1 x 13.7 cm
B1991.29
Digital image courtesy Yale Center for British Art; free to use under the Center's Image Terms of Use
Where you'll find this
Yale Center for British Art
Permanent collection
