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.

Musings

Spring has sprung! Or...is it summer? It sure feels almost like June, not March.

This was a fortnight and two days ago.

And the inside of a lenten rose in our yard a few days ago.

Bad thing is, frost is coming. Oh. Dear.

Divided: Emma is done...just awaiting editing and making-into-more-historical-dialogue. Divided: Judith is halfway, and I've ideas for Divided: Kate. Emma has a proper title, which is Secret Promises. Judith has three possibilities: Remedying Lies or For the Sake of Honesty or For the Sake of Truth or A Love Against Conscience. Four, I guess.

Funny random thing I learned recently: the search engine Yahoo! is an acronym for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.

Inspiring summery painting:

                                               Edmund Blair Leighton - Sweet Solitude

Discrimination in Research, Paintings

I have been starting to write a story about the children of Lettice Knollys, who was the daughter of Queen Elizabeth I's cousin. There is very little information about Penelope and Dorothy Devereux, the main characters of this as-of-yet untitled piece of work, and as I was researching yesterday I ran into inconsistency between the different sites, i.e. birth dates, who was engaged to who and broke it off, etc. I could just dither over two different dates, or dither over whether or not I should have Penelope or Dorothy engaged to this person named Sir Phillip Sidney, but instead I'm just deciding upon which one best fits the plot of my story. That's what one has to do, really, when one runs into problems with historical research for novels based on historical people. Just choose which dates etc. best fit one's plot, and fill in the holes, (in my case, big, gaping holes,) with one's imagination.

I have been looking up Victorian and Edwardian paintings lately for a calendar I am making, trying to pick which of the gorgeous pieces of art best fit which month. These are two of my favorites:

John Singer Sargent, The Black Brook, circa 1908

Edward Cucuel, Unknown title. I'm guessing sometime between 1910-1930s.

In cold, colorless winter I am simply adoring these vibrant, summery hues and gardens overflowing with flowers.

"...Nor less, the stillness of these frosty plains,

Their utter stillness and the silent grace

Of yon ethereal summits white with snow..."

An excerpt of a poem by William Wordsworth that I just stumbled upon.

“I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.” George Bernard Shaw

Weekly Characters

Since I was not able to do last week's character, due to having been on a trip, I will profile two characters today.
The one to make up for last week's:

Margaret, Elizabeth and Wilhelmina, from left to right. Three sisters, though one, (Wilhelmina,) by marriage. It is in the 1770s, and they are being painted to commemorate two events: Margaret and Wilhelmina's brother Nathaniel's third wedding anniversary, and Elizabeth's engagement to a young merchant by the name of Jack Hastings. The secret they are all inwardly laughing at is that the real-life backdrop of this portrait is in fact not what you see in the completed picture, but a simple room in the painter's home. Elizabeth, however, wishes that they truly were by a great window in a stone castle with burgundy drapes, for she is a dreamer who loves adventure, romance and daring. Practical Margaret thinks she is silly to dream of such things "when they can never come about". Both sisters encourage their sister-in-law to pursue her talent at embroidery, (which she is doing in the painting,) by selling her masterpieces of stitchery to an upholsterer's or some other such trade which could put Wilhelmina's work on public display. However, she is not vain about her talent, and does not wish to exhibit it in such a fashion. "Giving my embroideries as gifts to my family is enough to satisfy me," Wilhelmina often tells her sisters-in-law. Elizabeth was at first shocked when she heard Margaret suggest the idea that her husband's sister should sell her embroidery, for Margaret would never even think of doing such a un-ladylike thing as "selling her art, scandalous idea!" herself, but this shows Margaret's nature of apreciating other's artistic works so much that she would even suggest such a thing!


This week's:

Mimi Jacquard, one of the many models for a fashion house in New York City in 1951, pauses at the stair of her apartment building and is rapidly sketched by a young artist, Henri Glederé living above her.
        Mimi was born in Paris, France in 1930, and before she had even graduated from high school she was working as a fashion model there. When she was ninteen, her way with fashion was spotted by the head of a New York City fashion house visiting Paris to search for new models, and was hired on the spot. Mimi's sophisticated and somewhat haughty demeanor was just the thing the designer wanted to demonstrate his new line of clothing.  Mimi loved New York from the moment she stepped off the ship, immaculate in her oh-so-stylish traveling outfit of a full, flowing navy blue pleated skirt with a matching jacket cinched tightly at the waist, pumps dyed to match, and an also matching hat with a large, stiff, skyward-pointing feather. 
          Henri is secretly smitten with the elegant Mimi. However, until she can overcome her distainful, cold air towards the financially struggling Henri, his infatuation is hopeless. If only Mimi would find out that his name is spelled with and "i" instead of a "y", her heart might soften towards him upon realizing he is a fellow Frenchman! How Henri would be devastated if he were to find out that Mimi was on her way to dinner with her beau Digby Hardey!
          If only he could break through her cold exterior to find the warm, wholehearted instead of distant person which Mimi does not even seem to notice is there.
               
(Disclaimer: the stories above are completely fictional and all the characters are of my own invention. The paintings are not of the characters in the stories, nor was the sketch done by Henry Gledere.)

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.)