Collections - Search Results
Search Results - Object Record
- Overview |
- Detailed Record
- Title:
- La Belle Jaune Giroflee (The Beautiful Wallflower)
- Artist / Maker:
- Sandys, Emma
- Date/Period:
- 1870
- Museum link:
- Ferens Art Gallery
Emma was the daughter of Norwich artist, Anthony Sandys (pronounced 'Sands') and the sister of the better known Pre-Raphaelite related artist, Frederick Sandys (1829-1904). Her father was responsible for her early training as an artist but it is the work of her brother who influenced her most in terms of style, subject matter and a highly finished technique. In also sharing Frederick's props and frames, much of Emma's work has often been mistaken for her brother's. It is only recently that her work has started gaining more recognition. La Belle Jaune Giroflée is typical of Sandys' work. She painted mostly half-length decorative portraits of women in oil or chalk. Like so many aesthetic paintings of the time, this work has colour as a central theme. The warm yellows and oranges of the background flowers lead the eye to the rich amber of the necklace. It was common for Frederick to add flowers as a decorative scheme in the background of his portraits, a practice which Emma would have been inspired by. For most of this century, La Belle Jaune Giroflée was presumed to be by Frederick rather than Emma Sandys, partly due to the frame, which was originally designed for her brother. Giroflée is the French name for stock, or gilly flower, but these are not the flowers depicted in this picture. Girofle (without the accent), however, is the clove plant, which may be an allusion to clove-scented plants that the flowers and foliage in the picture do resemble. It is more likely that the reading of the title takes the old French meaning of the word, carnation, used by artists to symbolise of loss or sorrow and therefore befitting the wistful gaze of Sandys' subject. Frederick Sandys' drawing, The Tangled Skein, is in the collection of the Ferens Art Gallery.
