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Dorothy Dene | |
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 Dorothy Dene in the 1880s | |
| Born | Ada Alice Pullen 1859/1860 New Cross, London, England |
| Died | 27 December 1899 (aged 40) London, England |
| Burial place | Kensal Green Cemetery |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, artist's model |
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Dorothy Dene (1859/1860 – 27 December 1899), bornAda Alice Pullen, was an English stage actress and artist's model for the painterFrederick Leighton and some of his associates. Dene was considered to have a classical face and figure and a flawless complexion. Her height was above average and she had long arms, large gray-blue[1] (sometimes reported as violet or having a violet hue)[2][3] eyes and abundant golden chestnut hair.[4]
Dene was born inNew Cross, London, in 1859 or 1860; her birth name was Ada Alice Pullen.[5] She came from a family of six siblings and a number of her sisters earned their living from acting on stage.[6] She lived with her sisters in an apartment inSouth Kensington, London.[2]
According to a story published in 1897, Leighton chose her as the one woman in Europe whose face and figure most closely tallied with his ideal. Leighton searched Europe for a model suitable for his 1884 paintingCymon and Iphigenia, eventually finding Dene in a theatre in London.[7] However, the story about her being found in a theatre is contradicted in Leighton's biography, written by Emilia Barrington right after his death. According to Barrington, Dene was spotted by the artist at the doorstep of a painter's studio close to Leighton's. The studio mentioned was probably that of Louise Starr Canziani in Kensington Green where she was already working as a model. She sat for Leighton when he paintedBianca in 1881.
Aside fromCymon and Iphigenia Dene appeared as the maiden catching the ball in Leighton'sGreek Girls Playing Ball. Her long arms embellish the painter'sSummer Moon. She also was the model for hisCaptive Andromache,The Garden of the Hesperides, The Bath of Psyche, Flaming June, among many[8] others.[9]
John Everett Millais andGeorge Frederic Watts also used Dene as a model.[10]
There have been rumours that Leighton had a romantic interest in Dene,[10] but nothing has ever been substantiated. Leighton's sexuality remains a matter of debate. He remained a bachelor and, according to art historianRichard Louis Ormond who together with his wife Leonée wrote Leighton's biography, acknowledged he "fulfilled some part of himself in the company of young men".[11] However, Leighton's friend, Italian artistGiovanni Costa makes some mysterious references to the artist's "wife" in letters to their mutual friendGeorge Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle. It has been speculated that they refer to Dene.[10]
Leighton assisted Dene in her acting career; educating her and introducing her to "fashionable society",[10] and it has been speculated thatGeorge Bernard Shaw "drew upon their relationship" for his playPygmalion.[10][12]
At his death, he left her £5,000, plus another £5,000 in trust for herself and her sisters (this was the equivalent of around one million pounds today), which was by far the largest bequest he made.[10]
Ada Alice became "Dorothy Dene" in 1882 when Leighton became Ada'sbenefactor. It was adopted as a stage name for her theatrical career. "Dorothy" was chosen by Ada in reference to her younger sister who died in 1877 and the surname Dene was chosen by Leighton.
Dene made her debut as an actress as Maria inThe School For Scandal in 1886.[6] Theatre criticClement Scott predicted great things for her acting career after seeing her first performance.[13] After that she played dramatizations ofBleak House andCalled Back along with many classical plays.[6]
In late 1892, Dene traveled to the United States[14] and in New York City she performed in a play produced by theTheater of Arts and Letters.[15] She also performed in other venues in the country.[16] Although the very critical American audience considered her performance to their standards and received many offers from managers,[17] Dene found little success as a performer in America and her 1893 tour was eventually abandoned.[18] In Britain her skill as an actress did not go unnoticed. In 1894, in a tour ofA Woman of No Importance,[19] she alternated the roles of Mrs Allonby and Mrs Arbuthnot with the company's other leading lady,Florence West: critics complimented Dene on contrasting the two very different characters successfully. One wrote that she rose "to a height of intense emotional power" in the latter role, another that she played the former "with much charm and grace of manner".[20]
Some reports mention her spending her last four years as a recluse[21] and that physicians who treated her said "she was dying from consumption, a victim of her own work, in spending long hours, scantily draped, in the not too comfortable studio."[22] She died in London in the summer of 1899[23] at the age of forty and is buried inKensal Green Cemetery.[24]
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