Portrait of a Lady

Henry Treffry Dunn (1838–1899) was Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s assistant and a painter in his own right. Dunn was the son of a tea merchant. He was born in 1838 in Truro and trained at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art in Chelsea.

Dunn’s memoirs are a valuable source for the lives of the Pre-Raphaelites. He was paid to be Rossetti’s factotum and to create copies of Rossetti’s paintings. It has been said that the painting Lady Lillith in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was actually painted by Dunn and only “touched up” by Rossetti.

Dunn’s paintings are influenced by Rossetti and in some cases he would make preliminary studies and copies for Rossetti. His painting style was described as “more solid than graceful”. Dunn recounted that he was given the position after successfully creating a copy of Rossetti’s work. Rossetti used his assistant frequently to create copies which he would complete and at one stage Dunn complains at having to create a third copy of the same painting. Some have said that some of Rossetti’s paintings were in fact almost entirely created by Dunn.