Fantine(painting)
Fantineis a painting byMargaret Bernadine Hall(1863–1910) hanging in theWalker Art Gallery,Liverpool,England. It is executed in oil on canvas, and measures 157 cm by 116.2 cm.[1]
History
[edit]The subject of the painting isFantine,a character inVictor Hugo's 1862 novelLes Misérables.[2]It was painted in Paris in 1886, the year following Victor Hugo's death, and received an honourable mention from the Société des Femmes Peintres. The following year some of Hall's paintings were shown at exhibitions in Vienna, Chicago, London and Manchester, and it is likely thatFantinewas among them.[3]After Hall's death in 1910, her brotherSir Douglas Bernard Halloffered the painting to theNational Gallery,London, but it was declined. During the following year he offered it to the Walker Art Gallery, where it was accepted.[4]In 1988 the painting was restored in the Harriet Owen Hughes Conservation Centre inBluecoat Chambers,Liverpool, and as of 2012, it hangs at the head of the main staircase of the Walker Art Gallery.[5]
Description
[edit]The painting depicts the full-face portrait of a seated woman with strong highlights, in front of a dark background. The woman looks forward with a sad, wistful expression. In front of her is a sleeping baby in a cradle, with a doll in a red dress lying on the floor. In the background, an empty bottle sits on a table.[1][6]The painting represents an episode in the early chapters ofLes Misérables.Fantine, having fallen in love, had been made pregnant, and then abandoned. This occurred in Paris during a period following theFrench Revolution.The baby was later nicknamedCosette.The painting demonstrates the sorrow and poverty of an abandoned single mother in post-Revolutionary France.[7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Citations
- ^ab 'Fantine', Margaret Hall, 1886,National Museums Liverpool,archived fromthe originalon 10 October 2012,retrieved9 August2012
- ^Hussey 2011,pp. 48–50, 63–65.
- ^Hussey 2011,pp. 64–65.
- ^Hussey 2011,p. 71.
- ^Hussey 2011,p. 87.
- ^Hussey 2011,p. 48.
- ^Hussey 2011,pp. 48–50.
Sources
- Hussey, John (2011),Finding Margaret: The Elusive Margaret Bernadine Hall,Birkenhead: Countyvise,ISBN978-1-906823-55-9