Dorothy Dene: The Muse Behind Leighton's Flaming June

Dorothy Dene, born Ada Alice Pullan, was the most significant woman in Frederic Leighton's later years, discovered by his biographer Mrs. Barrington in 1879. Leighton paid for her acting classes and approved her name change. Despite a successful debut in London in 1885, her acting career faltered after expanding to New York. Leighton called her to his deathbed in 1896 and left her money; she died three years later. His last painting, Clytie (1896), unfinished, may reflect autobiographical despair. Leighton also modeled Nanna Risi, known as La Nanna, wife of a Roman cobbler and mistress of Anselm Feuerbach, whom he painted in 1859.