1884, William Merritt Chase, In the Studio -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: This presentation of Virginia Gerson--the artist's future sister-in-law--is in keeping with the veneration of domesticity that defined bourgeois life in the late 19th century. Seated among fabrics, scattered folios, and a jumble of bric-a-brac, the woman wears ruffles of iridescent white gossamer. Leaning forward, her head turned away, she is the passive recipient of our assessing gaze. Were it not for her right hand, which grasps the front post of the chair, she could be confused for a studio mannequin--literally "propped up" on a plump cushion.
1884, William Merritt Chase, In the Studio -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
From the museum label: This presentation of Virginia Gerson--the artist's future sister-in-law--is in keeping with the veneration of domesticity that defined bourgeois life in the late 19th century. Seated among fabrics, scattered folios, and a jumble of bric-a-brac, the woman wears ruffles of iridescent white gossamer. Leaning forward, her head turned away, she is the passive recipient of our assessing gaze. Were it not for her right hand, which grasps the front post of the chair, she could be confused for a studio mannequin--literally "propped up" on a plump cushion.