In Between a Girl and a Lady

 
 

Cassandra Sebastian

 

Professor Mary Jane Sullivan

 

HUM 3990

11 July 2013

 

In Between a Girl and a Lady

This oil painting by artist John Singer Sargent titled, Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer (A Lady in White) caught my eye while touring the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. Elsie Palmer, the girl in the painting, is the eldest daughter of General Palmer, the Founding Father of Colorado Springs. The Artist, John Singer Sargent, was commissioned to complete several oil paintings of the Palmer family, this is the most famous. After reading the book, Ways Of Seeing, by John Berger, there are several things that stand out in this painting to me, Elsie’s expression, her wardrobe, her demeanor, and the background.

Her expression, upon looking at her face, the first thing I noticed was her youth. She has very pale white skin, pink lips, and her cheeks are flushed. Her hair surrounds her face perfectly, and falls just past her soldiers, as if it was reminding everyone she is changing from girl to woman. Her wide eyes stare back at you and seem to follow you across a room. Her lips are pursed, as if she were trying not to smile. Her dimples show slightly at the droll of her mouth.  This picture makes me think that she had to take a break from playing outside on the Glen Eyrie property to have her portrait painted.

Her wardrobe, the dress Elsie is wearing in this painting is beautiful. It has pleats and folds all over the dress. You can tell that the material used for it was very expensive. I would imagine it was the hottest look from Paris or London. The center of the dress is cinched in to show off her very small waste. The brush strokes in this paining really accentuate the colors this artist used, and the intricate details of Elsie's gown.

Her demeanor, women are always taught to make themselves appear as small as possible. This is why we cross our legs, and fold our arms. If you look at this portrait carefully you will notice that her body language is suggesting how small she can make herself look. She has proper poster, her legs crossed, it is almost like you could fold her in half. Even you take a close looks at her hands, they aren't intertwined together boldly, rather they are placed neatly together, almost as if one hand were a shell for the other. This is something John Berger references in Chapter Three of his book, “To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men. The social presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage within such a limited space… this has been of a woman’s self being split into two.” (Berger 46) This painting does such a great job of capturing the “smaller” value of a woman in comparison to a man.

Her background, If you notice the wooden wall behind her painting it is similar to what you would seen in an Episcopal church. It has great dimension and provides for a very rich and elegant background. John Berger suggests that, “What distinguishes oil painting from any other form of painting is its special ability to render the tangibility, the texture, the lustre, the solidity of what it depicts.”(88) The panels frame her face and body perfectly, and the rich colors of the wood bring out the red in her hair, and the highlight of the pleats in her gown.

This painting caught my eye as soon as I rounded the corner, and I couldn’t imagine writing about anything else. I have been to Glen Eyrie and will now return in hopes to learn more about this young woman in the portrait.  

 

Paining Information:

 

Artist: John Singer Sargent

American, 1856-1925

Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer (A Lady in White)

1890

Oil on canvas

Location: Colorado Springs Fine Art Center

Dimensions: 190.8 x 114.6 cm (75 1/8 x 45 1/8 in.)

 

 

Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting, 1972. Print.