mycalicocat

I don't know about your computer, but on mine, you can click the picture and make it larger.
 

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit is one of my favorite paintings. I saw it when NoRedHat freed us for a surprise trip to Boston. I don't normally want to know anything about the lives of artists (since the results are normally disillusioning), but I do feel for Sargeant. He was one of the great portraitists ever, but I can see how he would get sick of it. This painting, I think, is a way to keep portrait painting interesting for the artist.
 

I agree it's a great painting. Just ODD. I have a poster-sized Sargent -- the joyful "Carnation Lily Lily Rose" -- in my bedroom. I've been reading about Sargent (and Ezra Pound and others in John Berendt's "City of Falling Angels.") He did other family portraits that had the same disconnected quality, and sometimes you get the feeling that he's doing a portrait of the light and darkness in the room, and that that the people are treated as light catchers. Re the lives of artists, the lives of writers are often best not read about either! I've never yet found a biography of my beloved Jane Austen that didn't put me to sleep, and any number of my favorite poets were truly dysfunctional and self-absorbed people.

Anyway, my fictional explanation is that mom forgot it was the baby's birthday, dad forgot to pay the power bill, and they have just arrived home after an all-night party to be greeted by their glaring offspring.
 

the children in the dark area are the intellectual children of the first wife. they are feeling, and rightly so, supplanted by the children of the bimbo second wife. the half sisters are less intellectual and are therefore wearing clothes befitting their coping style. they are in the forefront because they are used to being the special children so of course the artist, they think, would want to see them and not the plainer children of the first wife. the artist is actually more interested in the intellectual daughters. he even paints one without a face as a satire of the special children.
 

Hmmm. That's better than mine. But then there's the Menendez explanation, in which the girl in the shadows and the one on the left are both holding guns.
 

we never talk about guns until the prosecution mentions them.:)
 

I went researching and found some information from a book about Sargent.
"The four Daughters of Edward Darley Boit are, from left to right: Mary Louisa (1874-1945, about 8 years old at the time), Flourennce (1868-1919, about 14 yrs old), Jane (1870-1955, about 12 yrs old), and Julia (1878-1969, about 4 yrs old). None of the girls ever married, and both Flourennce and Jane, the two rear daughters, became to some extent mentally or emotionally disturbed. Mary Louisa and Julia, the front two girls, remained close as they grew older, and Julia, the youngest, became an accomplished painter in water-colors. (Ormond, P.56)"
--
 

that's even more interesting than our attempt at fiction.
 

I don't think it's more interesting than your idea of the neglected intellectual daughters skulking in the background. Do you have step-siblings?
 

I meant to note that Flourennce was probably depressed at having such a weird name.
 

i was just admiring her name and thinking that maybe that should be my "street name".:):) i have step-siblings, but i actually like them. they came after i was grown and their mother/my stepmother was so weird, my sister and i felt sorry for them and actually embraced them.i was drawing on my almost daily experience of someone getting cut because the reputed father bought shoes for the baby of one combatant and no shoes for the other combatant's baby.
 

They are a set of crime crime fighting superheroines with their own TV series and line of merchandise.
The one on the left, the second oldest, is named Kristii. She is 11, and has the power of flight, and is the most aggressive and competive of the set, and often ends up getting captured because of this.
The oldest girl, Lea, the one who's face is mostly hidden, can control light and darkness, which is a very useful power, but doesn't lend itself to much dialogue. Her main purpose is to be dark and mysterious and 14.
Next to her is the second youngest, Cari, who has no super powers, but instead is a super-ninjette. She is very sulky, and often feels inadequate or ignored because she has no supernatural abilities (other than being practically invisible and aparently invincible). However, she tends to be the most useful crime fighter, and often ends up rescueing Kristii. She is nine years old.
The youngest girl is Lyly, on the floor, who is four and doesn't usually join in during fights, but does most of the planning. She has telekinesis and has visions of the future. Actually, the doll has visions. But she only tells them to Lyly, so it's more or less the same. The doll is named Mayry. Personally, I find her a little creepy.
 

Wonderful, Endub. I hadn't noticed how creepy the doll is, but you're right. Sort of like Chuckie.
 

i thought the doll was creepy too. i would prefer a screenplay made from endub's version than from mine. i could probably even eat one of those health muffins in the theater if i was watching her screenplay.