Ellen Smith

Ellen Smith was a laundress “who was a popular model for a while, sitting to several painters” (Marsh 248). DGR used her frequently in some of his most important pictures: for example, A Christmas Carol, Joli Coeur, Washing Hands, the left foreground bridesmaid in The Beloved, and the replicas of The Loving Cup.

In his diary entry for 13 April 1863 George Boyce wrote that “she sat for several of [DGR's] sweetest pictures until the poor girl got her face sadly cut about and disfigured by a brute of a soldier and then of course she was of no more use as a model” ( Boyce, Diaries, 45 ).