Rolinda Sharples
We all know this painting, used on zillions of book covers, and I love it. Technically it may not be the greatest painting in the world but it has a delightful quirkiness and great detail of faces, expressions, clothes. It's Rolinda Sharples' painting of 1817 (probably) of the Cloak-Room at the Clifton Assembly Rooms.
Rolinda Sharples (1793-1838) is a bit of a mystery. Go here, and you'll find her celebrated as an American woman painter. Everywhere else, including the Bristol Art Museum which houses this painting, you'll find she's a Bristol girl. She's a contemporary of the female offspring of the celebrated Peale family of artists, Anna Claypoole Peale, (1791-1878), Margaretta (1795-1882) and Sarah Miriam (1800-1885). I'll talk about them another time.
The Sharples family were, like the Peales, a multi-generational family of artists. Rolinda was the daughter of James and Ellen, both artists. She was born either in New York in 1794 or in Bristol or Bath in 1793; at any rate, the family moved to New York in 1794, where the family business prospered, and then after James died, the family moved back to Bristol in 1811. Rolinda and her brothers George, Felix, and James, Jr. became artists, and successful ones too. Rolinda trained with her mother, seen in this self-portrait and went on to exhibit in major cities, including at the Royal Academy in London.
One of her most famous paintings was the Trial of Colonel Brereton (1834) but I haven't been able to find a reproduction of it online. Answers.com sniffily reports that ... it is, like all her work, devoid of social comment or satire and also epitomizes her meticulous literalism and refers to her as a female provincial artist--that last comment obviously being two strikes against her. (Jane Austen, as we all know, was a female provincial novelist.)
She may, however, have been the first woman artist to have attempted crowd scenes, such as this portrait of the Clifton Race Courses.
In another crowd scene, of a group of people waiting to board a ferry, this detail shows her interest in faces and expressions and clothes, and also some very nice representations of children.
This portrait is allegedly of the young Charles Darwin, already messing about with plants.
I had a female character who was an artist in Dedication, my first book, and I've always wanted to write another. The artist I had in mind then was Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, portraitist to aristocrats and royalty, but I'm more intrigued now by someone like Sharples, participating in the family art business.
I see a parallel between successful artists like Rolinda Sharples and writers of modern mass fiction, proving that we can be both skilful in our craft and enjoy commercial success. What do you think? And do you have any favorite artist characters in your own or others' novels?
Rolinda Sharples (1793-1838) is a bit of a mystery. Go here, and you'll find her celebrated as an American woman painter. Everywhere else, including the Bristol Art Museum which houses this painting, you'll find she's a Bristol girl. She's a contemporary of the female offspring of the celebrated Peale family of artists, Anna Claypoole Peale, (1791-1878), Margaretta (1795-1882) and Sarah Miriam (1800-1885). I'll talk about them another time.
The Sharples family were, like the Peales, a multi-generational family of artists. Rolinda was the daughter of James and Ellen, both artists. She was born either in New York in 1794 or in Bristol or Bath in 1793; at any rate, the family moved to New York in 1794, where the family business prospered, and then after James died, the family moved back to Bristol in 1811. Rolinda and her brothers George, Felix, and James, Jr. became artists, and successful ones too. Rolinda trained with her mother, seen in this self-portrait and went on to exhibit in major cities, including at the Royal Academy in London.One of her most famous paintings was the Trial of Colonel Brereton (1834) but I haven't been able to find a reproduction of it online. Answers.com sniffily reports that ... it is, like all her work, devoid of social comment or satire and also epitomizes her meticulous literalism and refers to her as a female provincial artist--that last comment obviously being two strikes against her. (Jane Austen, as we all know, was a female provincial novelist.)
She may, however, have been the first woman artist to have attempted crowd scenes, such as this portrait of the Clifton Race Courses.In another crowd scene, of a group of people waiting to board a ferry, this detail shows her interest in faces and expressions and clothes, and also some very nice representations of children.
This portrait is allegedly of the young Charles Darwin, already messing about with plants.I had a female character who was an artist in Dedication, my first book, and I've always wanted to write another. The artist I had in mind then was Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, portraitist to aristocrats and royalty, but I'm more intrigued now by someone like Sharples, participating in the family art business.
I see a parallel between successful artists like Rolinda Sharples and writers of modern mass fiction, proving that we can be both skilful in our craft and enjoy commercial success. What do you think? And do you have any favorite artist characters in your own or others' novels?
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