Cinderella - Study

1862 – 1863

A study for the watercolour exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society in 1864, formerly in the collection of A.E. Street, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, USA. There is another similar study in Birmingham's collection, and another at the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester (D.1927.86), which also came from the Holliday collection.The figure in this particular study differs from the finished watercolour and Birmingham's other study in that she is much bulkier in size than the others, indicating that perhaps a different model was used. It has been suggested that Fanny Cornforth, Rossetti's primary model and mistress at this time, sat for the figure of Cinderella, which may explain the differentiations in the size of the figure in the studies. In the finished watercolour, Burne-Jones uses the small, delicate facial features, and perhaps body as well, of his wife, Georgiana.