text: Newly-discovered medical records have finally revealed the fate of pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti's muse Fanny Cornforth and how she died a tragic, death penniless death. The details of where and how the West-Sussex born model and mistress of Rossetti died remained a mystery for years until her biographer recently tracked her down through hospital records. They revealed the orange-haired beauty - whose face graced many of her lover's paintings - died in the Sussex county asylum in poverty and suffering from clear symptoms of dementia. Rossetti's famous painting Aurelia 'Fazio's Mistress' (pictured) was a portrait of his muse Fanny Cornforth . Fair Rosamund, painted in 1861 (left), and 1886's Lady Lilith (right) also used Cornforth as the model . The records revealed she died at the Graylingwell Hospital on February 24, 1909, at the age of 74. At the time of her death, she was suffering from 'senile mania, confusion, weak-mindedness and an inability to sustain a rational conversation, a poor memory and sleeplessness', The Guardian reported. Born Sarah Cox in 1835, she met Rossetti in 1958 and was considered one of his 'stunners' - a reference to the women he kept in his company as lovers and models. She went on to pose for at least 60 of his artworks. Art historian Kirsty Stonell Walker used the records from Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester, now stored at the West Sussex records office, to track down her  resting site and lay flowers at her unmarked grave. Ms Stonell Walker told The Guardian: 'It is a very sad story, but the hospital was not a terrible place, it actually had a very progressive approach towards mental illness. 'She was buried with a few other people, but not exactly in a pauper's grave.' Rossetti was the son of Italian scholar Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and his wife Frances Polidori. He was born in London in 1828 and is known for his painting, illustrating, translating and poetry. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with contemporaries William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. His most famous paintings include Beata Beatrix, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, How They Met Themselves. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the most well-known founding members of the Pre-Raphelites group . The Pre-Raphelites were a group of English artists who formed a 'brotherhood' in 1848, dedicated to creating work that rejected the mannered approach adopted by Raphael and other Renaissance painters. Believing Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo had proven a corrupting influence on art, they wanted to return to the intense colour and detailed compositions that characterised 15th century Italian art. Founded by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the trio later welcomed Rossetti's brother, William, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to their circle.
target: Details of the death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's muse finally unmasked .
  Biographer Kirsty Stonell Walker located her grave using medical records .
  They revealed she died penniless, suffering from dementia in an asylum .
  She was the muse and model for some of Rossetti's best-known works .