The girl in the painting

[xchrom]

There sits my grandmother, Olive Blake, as a child at a fancy dress party in the Bahamas in 1885, dressed resplendently as an Arabian princess with scarlet head-dress and broad cummerbund over a yellow dress. A fan, which looks as if it is made from peacock feathers, dangles from her left hand and beside her, dressed as Arabian princes in flowing white trousers, are her younger brothers Maurice and Arthur. No wonder their parents Sir Henry and Lady Edith Blake were pleased by the watercolour of their three children painted by the American artist Winslow Homer.

The picture, for all its troubled recent history – detailed last Sunday evening as part of a major BBC series, Fake or Fortune – has an appealing freshness and spontaneity about it and Olive and her brothers look attractive, without being overly self-conscious of their exotic costumes. There is a certain formality about their expressions and posture, as if they are conscious that their father, Sir Henry, is the governor of the Bahamas. I wonder what Olive or her parents would have made of the controversy now surrounding the re-appearance and contested ownership of this charming painting, well over a century after it was produced.

Did she ever realise that Homer, already well-established when he visited the Bahamas, had gone on to become one of America's iconic painters who enjoyed immense popularity and some of whose paintings sell today for millions of dollars? I only have a hazy memory of Olive, who died in 1953 when I was aged three, as being a formidable looking woman of whom I was somewhat frightened.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/the-girl-in-the-painting-2303618.html

[CTyankee]

1. Ohhh, how lovely...I'm a big fan of Homer...he did nice work...

"orientalism" was all the rage back then...

[monmouth]

2. Absolutely lovely. Do you have an of his paintings?..nt

[xchrom]

3. I wish! Love his stuff. Nt

[Taverner]

4. Question: is this a painting of "Job's Daughters"?

And that is the Masonic org, not the actual daughters

[xchrom]

7. See reply #5. nt

[Taverner]

8. I read #5. I ask the question again.

Since it didn't really answer my question...

[Bunny]

5. I read about this painting in The Art Detective.

Here's an excerpt from a review of that book:

http://calitreview.com/9528

Yet another of his discoveries turns out to be a lost watercolor by one of America’s greatest 19th century artists, Winslow Homer — a painting which had literally appeared out of nowhere one day in Southern Ireland, abandoned next to a dump heap! The work had been miraculously rescued by a local fisherman.

It's a pretty good book. Nice painting, too.

[closeupready]

6. Winslow Homer is on my short list of favorite American artists - this one is lovely.

I am not a professional appraiser, but this would likely sell for $2 - $3 Million, IMO. ;)

[femmocrat]

9. Beautiful! Homer is my favorite American artist.

How wonderful that your grandmother was immortalized in this lovely watercolor.

Thanks for sharing. :hi: