Waugh, Fanny

(ENGLAND)
BORN 1833 - DIED 20 Dec 1866, Firenze, Toscana
CAUSE OF DEATH childbirth (puerpural anaemia)
GRAVE LOCATION Firenze, Toscana: Cimitero Degli Inglesi, Piazzale Donatello, 38 (next to Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Fanny Waugh was the daughter of a wealthy chemist in London. She was 32 years old when in 1865 she married the painter William Holman Hunt, who was 38 at the time. William Michael Rossetti was best man at the wedding.

In 1866 the Hunts left England to go to the Holy Land where Hunt wanted to visit Biblical sites for his painting. Fanny was seven months pregnant and her father didn't like the idea of the journey at all. In Florence they were confronted with a ban on Italian ports and they decided to stay in Florence.

Hunt used his pretty pregnant wife as a model and she was forced to stand for hours. She modelled for "Isabella and the pot of Basil". she gave birth to a son on 27 Oct 1866 but it was a difficult delivery and she was in pain afterwards. She contraced a fever and died on 20 Dec 1866. Their son Cyril Benoni survived.

She was buried at the English Cemetery in Florence where her tomb was sculpted by Hunt. Nine years later he married her younger sister Edith. This was forbidden in Engeland at the time and they travelled abroad in order to be married.

Family
• Husband: Hunt, William Holman (1865-1866, London: Christ Church, Paddington)

Images

The grave of Fanny Waugh at the Cimitero Degli Inglesi, Firenze.
Picture by Androom (03 Feb 2011)

 

Sources
Internet
William Holman Hunt - Wikipedia


Weber, Carl Maria von

Published: 22 Mar 2017
Last update: 08 Mar 2022