Middle Grade Gallery 4
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 04:00PM 
So far the Middle Grade Gallery has only featured paintings from fantasy novels. This week's description, however, is from a family story set in mid-twentieth century New York; it may even refer to an actual work of art (not the one pictured, which is Renoir's Girl with a Hoop, 1885).
[She] was always finding things that belonged to her in a special way, though ownership had nothing to do with it. Now she had found the picture. The catalogue told her that the picture was called The Princess, that it had been painted by someone named Jules Clairon in the year 1881. In the picture a girl about [her] age was sitting on a garden wall and looking out over an enormous city. She had a solemn little face: her long hair hung to the sash of her old-fashioned dress, and her high-heeled boots were buttoned almost to the knee. Among the potted chrysanthemums at her foot sat a black poodle with a red bow on top of his head. On either side the clipped plane trees were almost bare, and in the distance the huge city was spread in a dusky web of blue and gray.
This must be referring to the French artist Georges Jules Victor Clairin (1843-1919), although I can't find a painting of his online that fits this description. I substituted Renoir's roughly contemporaneous Girl with a Hoop: she has the same solemn face, long hair, and old-fashioned dress. Sadly, no poodle.
Please leave a comment if you think you recognize the source of this description (or if you're an expert on Clairin). And check back on Monday for the details!
Reader Comments (7)
I want to say Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer but it's been a while since I read it...
I know! I loved that bit. Except the gypsies, which struck me as a bit much.
No, it's not from Roller Skates! Which I haven't read in a long time, either; I wonder what's making you both think of it? Will look it up (I think the book is in the attic). In the meantime, you can try again....
yoiks, no, I meant that I do in fact know it, but the other comment must have come just as I was commenting too! It's The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright!
You're right, Charlotte! About the gypsies, too. Although I'm still going to take a peek at Roller Skates, if only for the Tempest puppet play.
And thanks to both of you for faithfully commenting on my Gallery posts!
The Saturdays? I obviously haven't read that recently enough...either I've forgotten bits or I skipped that part the first time. Now if it was Spiderweb, that would make sense, b/c I read that the first time feeling completely nauseated b/c I was trying to finish it while someone was driving 50 miles an hour down a mountain with hairpin turns....
Ack! Jennifer, I can't read in the car at all, and am impressed you were able to manage it under those conditions! I loved The Saturdays, and liked the succeeding Melendy books less and less (relatively), so it's the one I remember best. I'm not sure even I would have remembered that bit, though--I sort of vaguely recalled that Randy had gone to a gallery on Saturday and went from there.