The Wedding Dress, 1911
Such emotive subjects as this were popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Elwell intensifies the sorrow of the scene by contrasting the light sheen of the woman's unworn gown with the black dress she wears instead, in mourning. Her bowed body, silhouetted against the open trunk, conveys the formal language of grief. The model for this painting was Violet Press, a costumier in Beverley. Fate dealt an ironic blow when, shortly after posing, she lost her husband in the First World War, after only a short marriage.
