Fanny Cornforth reached her zenith as Rossetti's model in the oil painting The Blue Bower of 1865, now at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham.

By 1867 Rossetti's eyesight was deteriorating and he began to resort to using chalks. This may explain the choice of medium and flattering soft focus on the model (who would have been in her mid thirties by this date).