The Letter
Artist
Sir Walter Westley Russell
(British, 1867-1949)
Dateca. 1910
Object number79.0929
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions50 1/2 x 40 3/4 in. (128.3 x 103.5 cm)
frame: 54 5/8 x 45 x 21 1/4 in. (138.7 x 114.3 x 54 cm)
frame: 54 5/8 x 45 x 21 1/4 in. (138.7 x 114.3 x 54 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineMuseo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Collections
DescriptionThis genre painting evokes the portrayals of women in domestic interiors prominent in seventeenth-century Dutch painting. Adopting the traditional posture and facial expression of melancholy, a young woman from a family in comfortable circumstances, elegantly dressed and in a meticulously decorated interior, is absorbed in reading a letter. This composition is an example of a group of works by Sir Walter Russell that portray the social ideal of an upper-class woman in the early twentieth century: passive, confined to her domestic surroundings, and dedicated to household tasks.
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