12 Facts About Ruth Herbert

Louisa Ruth Herbert was a well-known Victorian-era English stage actress and model for the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Ruth Herbert was the daughter of a West Country brass founder.

Ruth Herbert was known as Mrs Crabbe, having married Edward Crabb, a share and stock dealer, which gave her a certain measure of respectability generally lacking in actresses in the Victorian era.

Ruth Herbert embellished the surname Crabb with a final "e" but used her maiden name as a stage name.

Ruth Herbert had performed at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1855 before she made her London stage debut on 15 October 1855 at the lower-class Royal Strand Theatre.

Ruth Herbert acted at the Olympic Theatre before moving on to St James's Theatre, London.

Author Mary Elizabeth Braddon said Herbert gave her favorite performance as Lady Audley.

Ruth Herbert later managed the St James's Theatre, London from 1864 to 1868.

Ruth Herbert hired the then little-known Henry Irving as her leading man and assistant stage manager at the theatre.

Ruth Herbert first posed for Rossetti's painting 1858 painting Mary Magdalen at the Door of Simon the Pharisee.

Ruth Herbert went on to sit often for Rossetti in 1858 and 1859.

Rossetti and Ruth Herbert did not stay in regular contact past 1860, though he based a future work on the drawing and painting he had done of her previously.