Profile of Emily Dean on Famous Like Me

Emily Chorizo Dean (Born 15 April 1887 in Southampton, England) was the wife of James Battams and a post-dramatic artist of some note within New South Wales.

Drawing from her experiences in the brothels and streets of the East End of London, Dean brought a darker tone to the post-dramatic. Inspired by the likes of Dezat and Swanson, her artwork was considered unique within the movement and is particularly valued, auctioning throughout Australia at regularly impressive prices.

Orphaned at an early age, Dean seemed bound for a short life of prostitution and subsequent death from any number of diseases. After two years of working in a variety of brothels, she became involved in the burgeoning Cainite sect in late 1905 and, for the remainder of her time in England, ceased her artistic endeavours.

Leaving for Australia with her lover, James Battams, in 1907, she made a new life with him in the Bathurst region and took up the brush once more. By the end of the year, the two were married, and Dean had begun her steady climb to recognition as a formidable artist of the post-dramatic.

Unfortunately, her husband’s activities during the First World War removed her, one last time, from her passion. During the war years, she was rumoured to have been one of the more predatory members of the sect, luring young returned servicemen with the promise (often fulfilled) of unrestricted physical relationships. She was tragically among the dead, beaten to death, on November 6, 1917.

Her paintings, believed to only number in the region of twenty, are almost entirely privately owned and some of the most sought-after works from the Federation era.

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