Portrait of Dora Wheeler
To love a painting is to feel that this presence is… not an object but a voice.
~ Andre Malraux ~
Portrait of Dora Wheeler
by
William Merritt Chase
It is the contrast between this bold, golden background and the many shades of blue, which clothe Dora Wheeler, that instantly draw me into this painting; the more subtile elements of the chair, table, and her dark hair perfectly blend, then suddenly, like an exploding gusher my eyes rest on her face!
There is a tenderness between the subject and the artist, which creates beauty though she is not an attractive woman, perhaps not even handsom. Her confidence and poise, and the way she has been painted, stir me to want to know about Dora Wheeler, as well as William Merritt Chase.
The subject in this portrait had been the student of the painter, a man who believed in sharing his talents both as an artist and an educator. Chase founded the Chase Art School, which later became the renowned Parsons The New School for Design, in New York City. While Wheeler, upon completing her education with Chase, would go on to work with her mother, Candace Wheeler, in an interior design firm which specialized in the silk textiles that you see in the background of this painting.
A remarkable figure in American decorative arts, Candace Wheeler believed women should be educated in the arts, and is recognized as the creater of interior design. She was responsible for decorating the Woman’s Building, at the World’s Columbian Expostion (The Chicago World’s Fair) in 1893 which marked the 400th anniversary of Christopher’ Columbus’ advent into the New World; and served to annouce that Chicago had recovered from the tragedy of the fire of 1871.
For me, this canvass is aglow with an appreciation for all that is beautiful, enjoy!
Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed.
~William Blake ~
