Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Joanna Mary Wells (née Boyce), 1831–1861, British
Title:
Fanny Eaton
Date:
1861
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on paper laid to linen
Dimensions:
6 3/4 x 5 3/8 inches (17.1 x 13.7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed and dated, upper left: "Joanna M Wells 1861"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1991.29
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
shawl | earrings | pearls | jewelry | profile (figure) | shawls | portrait | woman | ethnicity | model (person) | queen (person)
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : Women at Yale (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-04-08 - 2020-08-30)

Pre-Raphaelite Sisters (National Portrait Gallery, 2019-10-01 - 2020-01-01)

The Black Figure in the European Imaginary (Cornell Fine Arts Museum, 2017-01-20 - 2017-05-15)

Figuring Women - The Female in Modern British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-03-28 - 2008-06-08)

Black Victorians - Black People in British Art 1800-1900 (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 2006-01-28 - 2006-04-01)

Black Victorians - Black People in British Art 1800-1900 (Manchester City Galleries, 2005-10-15 - 2006-01-15)

Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 1998-03-07 - 1998-05-17)

Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists (Southampton City Art Gallery, 1998-05-30 - 1998-08-02)
Publications:
Alayo Akinkugbe, "Black muses: who are these neglected sitters?", ArtUK, 25 Aug 2020, https://artuk.org/discover/stories/black-muses-who-are-these-neglected-sitters

Susan P. Casteras, A Struggle for Fame: Victorian women artists and authors, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1994, p. 52, pl. 5, N6796 C27 1994 (YCBA)

Adrienne L. Childs, Imagining Blacks in European art, Fine Art Connoisseur, 14 issue 2, Streamline, Boca Raton, Fla, p. 79, V 2837 (YCBA)

Adrienne L. Childs, The Black Figure in the European Imaginary, London; Winter Park, FL, 2017, p. 66, pl. 21, N8232 +C59 2017 Oversize (YCBA)

Matthew Hargraves, "Yale Center for British Art joins Art UK", ArtUK, 24 June 2019, https://artuk.org/discover/stories/yale-center-for-british-art-joins-art-uk

Jan Marsh, Not Simply a Case of Princely Male Genius and Passive Cinerellas, Apollo, 190, London, November 2019, p. 30, N1 A54 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)

Jan Marsh, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters, National Portrait Gallery Publications, London, England, p. 103, N6767.5.P7 M37 2019 (LC) Oversize (YCBA)

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Allen Staley, The New Painting of the 1860s, between the pre-raphaelites and the aesthetic movement , Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 2011, pp. 92-93, 121, fig. 81, ND467 .S72 2011 Oversize (YCBA)

Diane Waggoner, The Pre-Raphaelite lens, British photography and painting, 1848-1875 , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Farnham, Surrey [England], 2009, p. 139, fig. 7, N72 P5 W34 2010 + (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
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
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1336