People in Paintings

Sometimes I like to look at old paintings and make up stories about the people in them. (i.e. those silly old weekly character posts.) This one I didn't even have to think - it just was there.

This little girl is in a huge mansion - just look at that expanse of scarlet carpet! She looks lonely - her parents are away all the time, they send her fancy toys, pretty trinkets, even a dog. But she wants something more, see her dress? It reflects that she doesn't care about any of those exotic knick-knacks. Her only comfort in the ornately giant house is the little dog.

Now I've put myself in a sad mood...

...but wierd hats never fail to cheer me up. Grand Lady has gone for a stroll in the woods when she comes upon a very strange child, with huge wings, a battered hat with a scraggly feather, and a box of trinkets hanging from it's neck. One has to wonder where this oddity of a midget came from!

Girl on a Red Carpet, Felice Casorati, 1912.
Hilda Fairbairn, Love the Pedlar, unknown date but early 1900s. Funny, I thought the painter was named Hilda Fairbairn Love, and the painting, The Pedlar.

Titanic Centenary Week

One of my favorite books...It's not just about the Titanic but many other things as well. Nikola Tesla, spiritualism, journalism, time travel, just to name a few. Sherlock Holmes and his inventor Arthur Conan Doyle, Colonel Astor, even George Bernard Shaw and Queen Victoria are minor characters.

The story centers around the five Taylor sisters: Mimi, Jane (the narrator,) Emma, Amelie and Blythe, whose mother is a medium. Through many events leading up to this, which take up half the book, all five end up on that "Ship of Dreams", sailing towards a compelling ending.

Okay. That summary was bad. But it's a great book! Historical fiction, a bit of romance, science fiction...the only thing that irks me is the dress on the cover. So not 1912!!! And besides, it isn't the main character who wears a wedding dress!

Weekly Character

Each week I'm going to pick a picture from my extensive historical fashion picture folder, whether a Victorian fashion plate, a '50s model, a 18th century Duchess or a Regency dancer, and create a small profile of the person. Of course, I'll choose images of unidentified people, because the whole point of this is to make up who the person is.
Today this picture caught my eye:

                               
The lady in the center is Lucille Marie Vensten, nee Georget, and her children are Isabel and James, or "Jamie" for short. She was born in France in 1882, and as this picture looks to be about 1910, she is twenty-eight. She met Henry Vensten, a British painter, at a art convention in Paris in 1901. The two were married in 1902, in an outdoor ceremony at Henry's parent's villa in the south of France. In 1903, their daughter Isabel was born, and their son James in 1906. Lucille is also a very artistic person, and takes delight in sketching miniature portraits of Isabel and Jamie.  When Jamie was two, the Venstens moved to Italy, where Henry is an artist. They live in a little seaside cottage, with extensive gardens that Lucille tends every morning. The base drawing for this idyllic portrait was quickly sketched by Henry one morning in May when he saw his son bringing his mother and sister a rose from the giant rosebush by the front walkway. He presented the painting to Lucille for her birthday in September, and it hangs in the sunroom, which is Lucille's special place.

(Disclaimer: the story above is completely fictional and all the characters are of my own invention. The painting is not of Lucille, Isabel and James Vensten, nor was it painted by Henry Vensten.)