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W. & D. Downey
The Misses Dene
1893 (ca)
Woodburytype
5.5 x 3.6 in (140 mm x 93 mm)
Paul Frecker
LL/12169
Paul Frecker provides the following comments:
"A Woodburytype from around 1893 showing the Misses Dene. Dorothy Dene (1859-1899), posed here on the left, was a beautiful but indifferent actress who became a favourite model of Lord Leighton, posing for some of his most famous paintings, notably Flaming June, The Bath of Psyche, and The Garden of the Hesperides. She also posed for G.F. Watts. Her sisters, Edith (born 1865), seen here at the top, and Lena (properly Isabel Helena, born 1873), seen here at the bottom, also posed for Lord Leighton, as did another sister, Hetty (properly Henrietta Sarah, born 1867), who does not appear in this portrait. The fourth girl seen here, on the right, is Kathleen Blanche (born 1871)."
Illustrated in Jeremy Maas's The Victorian Art World in Photographs (1984) and Ken Jacobson's +tude d'aprÞs nature: 19th Century Photographs in Relation to Art (1996).
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