Dorothy Dene

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Dorothy Dene (1859 -- December 27, 1899), born Ada Alice Pullen, was an English stage actress and artist's model for the painter Lord Leighton. Dene had a classical face and figure. Her height was above average and she had long and lithe arms. Her eyes were large and violet and her hair was a golden chestnut, wavy, and abundant. Her complexion was flawless.

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[edit] Artist's Model

She posed for some of Leighton's best pictures. She came from a large family of girls, a number of whom earned their living from acting on stage. Dene was said to be England's most beautiful woman in the 1890s. Leighton chose her as the one woman in Europe whose face and figure most closely tallied with his ideal. As president of the Royal Academy the artist visualized the idea of his famous painting, Cymon and Iphegenia. The colorist sought his reclining figure throughout Europe before settling on Dene, who he found in London, England, after searching for six months. The model was a young actress discovered behind the footlights of a theater. Dene consented to pose and his most admired painting was completed within eight months.

Aside from Cymon and Iphegenia Dene appeared as the maiden catching the ball in Leighton's Greek Girls Playing Ball. Her long arms embellish the painter's Summer Moon. London gossip hinted that Leighton was in love with Dene before he died. There seemed to be an uncertain obstacle standing in the way of marriage between artist and model. Perhaps it was the disparity in their ages. Leighton was almost seventy years old and Dene was only twenty-eight.

[edit] Stage Actress

Dene debuted as an actress as Marin in The School For Scandal in 1886. She appeared in New York City in a play produced by the Theater of Arts and Letters and also performed in other venues there. She found little success as a performer in America and her tour was eventually abandoned.

[edit] Death

Dorothy Dene died in London in 1899, at the age of forty. Dene lived with her four sisters in an apartment in South Kensington, London. (This was a section of the city populated largely by artists and actors.)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Lima, Ohio Times Democrat, Searching For A Model, May 28, 1897, Page 6.
  • New York Times, English Actress Dies, December 29, 1899, Page 7.
  • North Adams, Massachusetts Evening Transcript, Most Beautiful English Woman, Tuesday, May 10, 1898.
  • Ogden, Utah Standard, A Beautiful Actress, Saturday, December 24, 1892, Page 7.