Henry Treffry Dunn

Henry Treffry Dunn was Dante Gabriel Rossetti's studio assistant from 1867 when he moved into Rossetti's home Tudor House at Cheyne Walk in Chelsea where he remained until 1880 when the two artists quarrelled over unpaid salary. Dunn was originally hired to make copies of Rossetti's work for sale but he also took on secretarial duties such as arranging appointments with models and patrons and even set up Rossetti's first bank account to stop Rossetti's friends and household staff from helping themselves to the money that he previously kept in an unlocked desk drawer. Dunn's own paintings were heavily influenced by Rossetti and the pose of the clothed woman in the present picture echoes Rossetti's magnificent late painting A Vision of Fiammetta of 1878 (private collection) in reverse. In his last years when Dunn was suffering from alcoholism, he was taken-in by a member of Rossetti's circle of friends Theodore Watts Dunton and lived with Dunton and his wife and the poet Charles Algernon Swinburne. He painted a remarkable folding bed for Dunton decorated with copies of some of Rossetti's pictures (Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton). These were painted on panels, like the present picture which may also have been painted as a decoration for a piece of furniture. The subject of the present picture appears to depict allegories of Autumn clothed in russets and gold and Summer naked for bathing. It is tempting to speculate that there was another panel depicting Winter and Spring.