Rossetti studied with Ford Madox Brown and was founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. He explored the romantic world of mediaeval mysticism. Fair Rosamund (d.c.1176) was the mistress of Henry II. She appears here behind a balustrade in the royal manor of Woodstock. The red silk cord in her hand, according to legend, warned of her lover's approach. The sitter, Fanny Cornforth, was a frequent model of Rossetti's. She became his housekeeper after the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal in 1862.
