Study of Fanny Eaton, by Joanna Boyce Wells

Study of Fanny Eaton (Head of a Mulatto Woman)

Joanna Boyce Wells (1831-1861)

1861

Oil on paper laid to linen

6 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches (17.1 x 13.7 cm)

Collection: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund (Accession Number B1991.29)

Fanny Eaton (1835-1924) was a Jamaican-born model, the daughter of a former slave on a British-owned plantation (see Figes), so she was, quite probably in view of her mother's surname, of mixed race. She sat for several of the Pre-Raphaelites. [Commentary continues below.]

Image released as being in the public domain. Commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.[Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Jan Marsh gives a full account of Fanny, explaining that most models would remain anonymous, but in this case researchers can find both "visual and documentary sources." She continues:

Fanny Eaton ... was born Fanny Antwistle or Entwhistle in Iamaica around l835~6, and by the mid 1850s was married to [or the common-law wife of] a London cart- and cab-driver named James Eaton. They had half a dozen children, and lived near Coram Fields in north-central London. Fanny, in a manner typical of her class, worked as a laundress and cleaner, and also intermittently as a model for many artists (one of whom described her as ‘mulatto’ or mixed race) during the 1860s.... The three artists we know of through their drawings of Fanny Eaton at this date were Frederick Sandys, Albert Moore, and Simeon Solomon. [55]

From 1860 on, Fanny sat for others, including Boyce Wells, before disappearing from the artistic scene in about 1870. Marsh picks up her story again in 1881, when she was "recently widowed and living in London with her seven children... working as a seamstress" (56). Later still, she was working as a cook on the Isle of Wight, before returning to London again in old age. Rather sadly, in view of the innate refinement and nobility which Boyce Wells reveals in her, her profession in the 1911 census is given as charwoman. It is some comfort to find that she is staying with family members (see Figes).

Lydia Figes writes, "Boyce's exquisite portrait of Eaton in profile accentuates Eaton's beauty with refined shimmering fabric and jewellery, including turquoise beads and pearls."

Related Material

Fanny Eaton, discussed in "Black Voices from the Past" by Beverly Andrews
[Review of] "Pre-Raphaelite Sisters" at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 17 October 2019 – 26 January 2020
The Mother of Moses by Simeon Solomon (for which Fanny modelled as Jochabed)

Bibliography

Figes, Lydia. "Fanny Eaton: Jamaican Pre-Raphaelite Muse." Art UK. Web. 28 October 2019.

"Joanna Mary Boyce (Biographical details)." British Museum. Web. 28 October 2019.

Marsh, Jan. "Pictured in Work — Employment in Art (1800-1900)." Belonging in Europe The African Diaspora and Work. Ed. Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi. London: Routledge 2011. 50-59.

"Search details: Joanna Boyce Wells." Yale Centre for British Art. Web. 28 October 2019.

Created 28 October 2019

Last modified (link added) 15 August 2024