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Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm

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Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica. Historically,

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women have been told to make themselves smaller, to

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diminish themselves. Some have

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used that idea to their advantage, disappearing

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into new identities. For others,

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a disappearance was the end to their stories,

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but the beginning of a new chapter in their legacies.

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This month, we're talking about disappearing

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acts today.

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A muse and a model from a tumultuous

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time in art and history. As

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a black, working class woman, she stood

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out against the white Victorian beauty standards

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at the time. Her likeness is featured

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in museums around the world, and

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yet she lived a life of obscurity.

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We don't have any of her own words. What

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we know is from public records and

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paintings. Even in art history,

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she's often overlooked. Many don't

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know her name. Well, it's

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Fanny Eaton. Fanny

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was born in Jamaica in eighteen thirty five. Since

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there's no father listed on her birth certificate,

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historians assume he was a white man, likely

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a British soldier. Fanny

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was born just after England abolished slavery

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in the colonies. Her mother Matilda

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had been enslaved. She moved

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to England a few years later and brought Fanny

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with her. It

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was a time of major change in social upheaval

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throughout the British colonies. Whispers

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of rebellion and independence were starting,

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and in the heart of England, working class movements

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were taking hold.

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Still, Victorian England was rife

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with racist and classist ideas.

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Scientific racism was in vogue.

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This belief that there was a natural hierarchy

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favoring superior races, was

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used to justify slavery and colonialism.

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Matilda, with Fanny in tow, took

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up a typical working class life in London.

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She found work as a laundress and Fanny worked

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as a servant. When she was twenty two

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years old, Fanny married James Eaton, a

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horse cab driver. They started

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having kids. Fanny kept working. Then

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she met someone,

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an artist, Simeon Solomon.

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He was a painter from a large Jewish family.

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His paintings often depicted Jewish figures

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and heroines, and he was looking

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to make them more historically accurate. It's

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not entirely clear how Fanny met Simeon,

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but it's likely he saw her on the Street and

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he saw his muse. Simeon

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asked Fanny to pose for him. She

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made her public debut in his painting The

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Mother of Moses. Fanny went

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on to pose for Simeon's sister Rebecca,

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and then for more young artists who became part

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of a rebellious movement at the time. The

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pre Raphaelites, as they came to be known,

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were frustrated by how the art of their day focused

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on the mundane. Instead,

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they wanted much to grapple with major moral, social,

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and religious questions, and

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they did so in bright colors.

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They also had a preference for intense detail

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and realism. While Renaissance artist

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Raphael and his followers had painted

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religious figures as glossy ideals,

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pre Raphaelites preferred to capture the

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specific features of their subjects,

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which is why many of them loved Fanny.

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Her high cheekbones, wide eyes, and textured

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hair added depth and dimension to their

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work, and while many black

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subjects were painted in subservient or

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background roles, Fanny was front

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and center. Fanny became

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amused not only for Simeon, but for many

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other painters at the time. She

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was often a generic stand in for the

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other any exotic

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identity the painters needed. Fanny

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stopped modeling in eighteen sixty eight. Why

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it's not clear, We can only speculate. Just

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a few years later, Simeon, the artist

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who found her, faced criminal charges

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for alleged homosexual activity, which

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was a crime at the time. The

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public scandal that followed ruined his

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career. He never recovered and

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eventually died from alcoholism.

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So Fanny disappeared from art.

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The rest of what we know comes from public record.

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Her husband John died, leaving

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Fanny a single mother to their ten children.

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She worked as a seamstress to support them.

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In nineteen oh one, she appeared briefly as a

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cook to a merchant family on the Isle of

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Wight. Fanny died

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on March fourth, nineteen twenty four, from natural

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causes. She was eighty nine

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years old. Fanny's

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likeness is included in dozens of paintings

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from a prominent time in art history. You

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can find her face in some of the world's top museums,

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from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

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to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

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All month we're talking about disappearing acts.

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For more information, Find us on Facebook and Instagram

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at Womanica Podcast special

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thanks to Lose Kapelan, my favorite sister and co

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creator. Talk to you tomorrow