Cornforth met Rossetti in 1858, and became his model and mistress in the absence of Elizabeth Siddal. Rossetti married Siddal when she returned in 1860, under the impression that she was dying. In response, less than three months later Cornforth married mechanic Timothy Hughes, but the relationship was short-lived. After Siddal's death in 1862, Cornforth moved in with the newly-widowed Rossetti as his housekeeper. T