Rosa Frances Corder (18 May 1853 – 28 November 1893) was a Victorian artist and artist's model. She was the lover of

Charles Augustus Howell Charles Augustus Howell (10 March 1840 – 21 April 1890) was an art dealer and alleged blackmailer who is best known for persuading the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti to dig up the poems he buried with his wife Elizabeth Siddal. His reputation as ...

, who is alleged to have persuaded her to create forgeries of drawings by

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( ; ), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brother ...

Career

Corder was the daughter of Micah Corder (1808–88), a London merchant, and Charlotte Hill. She trained as a portrait painter under

Felix Moscheles Felix Stone Moscheles (8 February 1833 – 22 December 1917) was an English painter, writer, peace activist and advocate of Esperanto. He frequently painted genre scenes and portraits. Biography Born on 8 February 1833 in London to a German Jew ...

and

Frederick Sandys Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys (born Antonio Frederic Augustus Sands; 1 May 1829 – 25 June 1904), usually known as Frederick Sandys, was a British painter, illustrator, and draughtsman, associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He was also asso ...

and exhibited at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

and the

Grosvenor Gallery The Grosvenor Gallery was an art gallery in London founded in 1877 by Sir Coutts Lindsay and his wife Blanche. Its first directors were J. Comyns Carr and Charles Hallé. The gallery proved crucial to the Aesthetic Movement because it provid ...

.John Bryson (ed), ''Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris: their correspondence'', Clarendon Press, 1976, p.92. Her portrait of

Edward Bouverie Pusey Edward Bouverie Pusey (; 22 August 180016 September 1882) was an English Anglican cleric, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement, with interest ...

was considered "the best likeness" of the scholar by the editors of his collected works and was engraved as the frontispiece to his biography. She had a studio in Southampton Row and another in Newmarket, where she painted racehorses, building a reputation among the sporting fraternity. She painted both animals and portraits of jockeys, including Frederick Archer.

Relationship with Howell

Corder was described by

Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry (27 February 184721 July 1928) was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and toured ...

as "one of those plain-beautiful women who are far more attractive than some of the pretty ones. She had wonderful hair – like a fair pale veil, a white waxen face and a very good figure; and she wore very odd clothes."Ellen Terry, ''The Story of my Life'', BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, p.290. According to

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral a ...

's biographer

Stanley Weintraub Stanley Weintraub (April 17, 1929 – July 28, 2019) was an American historian and biographer and an expert on George Bernard Shaw. Early life Weintraub was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1929. He was the eldest child of Benjam ...

she "exuded sexual appeal and knew it".Stanley Weintraub, ''Whistler: a biography'', Weybright and Talley, 1974, p.165. Corder became the lover of Charles Augustus Howell in 1873. Howell is alleged to have persuaded her to create drawings in the style of

, which Howell could pass off as originals. Corder is also said to have forged

Fuseli Henry Fuseli ( ; ; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain. Many of his successful works depict supernatural experiences, such as ''The Nightmare''. He pro ...

s.The Story of St George - St George Slaying the Dragon
/ref> Drawings derived from Rossetti's stained-glass window designs depicting the story of

Saint George and the Dragon In a legend, Saint Georgea soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a huma ...

are attributed to her. In 1883 Corder gave birth to a girl by Howell; their daughter was christened Beatrice Ellen Howell.The Correspondence of James McNeill Whister
/ref>

As model

Corder was painted by Whistler in his ''Arrangement in Black and Brown'', in the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1935 to preserve the collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection (museum) ...

. The portrait was commissioned by Howell. Whistler may have had a dalliance with her at the time. She was also portrayed by

Mortimer Menpes Mortimer Luddington Menpes (22 February 1855 – 1 April 1938) was an Australian-born painter, author, printmaker and illustrator. Born and raised in Port Adelaide, South Australia, Menpes migrated with his family to London, England in his earl ...

.The British Museum - Menpes Drypoint of Corder
/ref> Her relationship with Howell was caricatured by

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the theatre crit ...

in ''

Rossetti and his Circle ''Rossetti and His Circle'' is a book of twenty-three caricatures by English caricaturist, essayist and parodist Max Beerbohm. Published in 1922 by William Heinemann, the drawings were Beerbohm's humorous imaginings concerning the life of Dan ...

'' (1922).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corder, Rosa 1853 births 1893 deaths English artists' models 19th-century English painters 19th-century English women painters

Career

Relationship with Howell

As model

See also

Notes