Louisa Ruth Herbert (1831 – 1921) was a well-known

Victorian-era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed th ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

stage actress and model for the artist

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 ...

Actress

She was the daughter of a

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

. She was also known as Mrs. Crabbe, having married Edward Crabb, a share and stock dealer, which gave her a certain measure of respectability generally lacking in actresses in the Victorian era. By the mid-1850s, she was no longer living with her husband. She embellished the surname Crabb with a final "e" but used her maiden name as a stage name. She had performed at the

Theatre Royal, Glasgow The Theatre Royal is the oldest theatre in Glasgow and the longest running in Scotland. Located at 282 Hope Street, its front door was originally round the corner in Cowcaddens Street. It currently accommodates 1,541 people and is owned by Scott ...

in 1855 before she made her London stage debut on 15 October 1855 at the lower-class

Royal Strand Theatre The Royal Strand Theatre was located in the Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps. It was demolished in 1905 to ...

. She also acted at the

Olympic Theatre Olympic Theater or Olympic Theatre may refer to: * Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Australia, formerly Coppin's Olympic Theatre * National Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, converted to and renamed Olympic Theater in 1873 * Olympic Theatre (London), En ...

before moving on to

St. James's Theatre The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham (tenor), John Braham; it lost mone ...

, London. Her early roles were in

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

and

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

productions and she drew eyes with her beauty. She drew favorable reviews with her performance as the lead in

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of Punch (magazine), ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literatu ...

's ''Retribution'' at the Olympic. One of her well-known roles was the lead in an 1863 stage production of the sensation novel

Lady Audley's Secret ''Lady Audley's Secret'' is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon published on 1 October 1862. It was Braddon's most successful and well-known novel. Critic John Sutherland (author), John Sutherland (1989) described the work as "the most ...

at St. James's Theatre. Author

Mary Elizabeth Braddon Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular Novelists, novelist of the Victorian era. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel ''Lady Audley's Secret'', which has also been dramatised and filmed seve ...

said Herbert gave her favorite performance as Lady Audley. She later managed the St. James's Theatre, London from 1864 to 1868. She hired the then little-known

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...

as her leading man and assistant stage manager at the theatre. One of the plays that she commissioned there was

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

's first successful solo play, '' Dulcamara, or the Little Duck and the Great Quack'' (1866).

Artist's model

She first posed for Rossetti's painting 1858 painting ''Mary Magdalen at the Door of Simon the Pharisee''. Rossetti called her a "stunner," one of the beautiful women he sought out as models for his art. As he was waiting for her to arrive, he wrote his friend

William Bell Scott William Bell Scott (12 September 1811 – 22 November 1890) was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vi ...

of his enthusiasm for her: Herbert went on to sit often for Rossetti in 1858 and 1859. Rossetti and Herbert did not stay in regular contact past 1860, though he based a future work on the drawing and painting he had done of her previously. Herbert bequeathed several of the drawings made of her by Rossetti to her son, Major A.B. Crabbe, and they were sold at auction at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in 1922.

Later life

Herbert later married again, to John Downes Rochfort (son of Col. John Staunton Rochfort and younger half-brother of Horace William Noel Rochfort), and published a cookbook called ''The St. James's Cookery Book'' in 1894 under her married name, Louisa Rochfort.Rochfort, Louisa (1894), ''The St. James's Cookery Book'', London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd.
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Notes

References

*Haskins, Susan (1993). ''Mary Magdalen''. Konecky and Konecky. . *Surtees, Virginia (1973). "Beauty and the Bird: a new Rossetti Drawing" in ''The Burlington Magazine''.

External links

Rossetti Archive
*Photographies in Bridgeman Art Library

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert, Ruth 1831 births 1921 deaths 19th-century British actresses British stage actresses English stage actresses English artists' models Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artists' models Women of the Victorian era