Henry Treffry Dunn

Henry Treffry Dunn (1838–1899) was Dante Gabriel Rossetti's assistant and a painter in his own right. 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 Lilith in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was actually painted by Dunn and only "touched up" by Rossetti.

Dunn left Rossetti's house because he was owed his salary. After Rossetti died, Dunn received the money that was owing to him. He died while living with the poets Algernon Charles Swinburne and Theodore Watts-Dunton.

Life and career

Dunn was the son of a tea merchant. He was born in 1838 in Truro and trained at Heatherleys School of Fine Art in Chelsea. His sister Edith (born 1843) exhibited paintings, and another of his sisters was a professor of music. He took up the position of assistant to Rossetti at Cheyne Walk in 1867 when Rossetti's assistant, Walter Knewstubb, left to launch his own career. Dunn had been recommended for the position by the artist Walter Deverell. The painter's brother William Rossetti described Dunn as having bright dark eyes and being prematurely grey.

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. Charles Fairfax Murray, who was later another of Rossetti's assistants, claimed that the Lady Lilith in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was painted by Dunn and then "touched up" by Rossetti.