Oil on 28" x 22" wood panel, in hand painted wood  36 x 26" frame
 
One of the "More to It" series currently on view at Harrison Public Library until June 4th, The Dolls of Julia (Little) Boit has layered meaning inspired by John Singer Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.
 
A few months ago I had the idea of painting a still life with a pair of mischievous dolls and a spilled bottle of ink. That’s pretty much all there would have been to it if I hadn’t seen the Sargent painting (slide 2) at the Met last June. I was a little haunted by that painting, called “The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit,” so I took a deep dive into the history of the Boit family. Some of that intriguing story inspired this piece.

“Ned” in the letter is Edward, and the writer is Florence, his second wife, who was 36 years his junior. I copied and pasted Ned’s and Florence’s bio in from American Aristocracy’s website in the comments, in case you, too, are intrigued. I’ll let you decide what you feel I’m trying to convey.

Incidentally, I only had one doll at the time (the one at the far left) so did some antique shopping to find the other 3. Swipe to see the close ups of the painting, and a picture of the actual dolls and other props, which I already owned. The books are first editions of Wharton’s novels, gifted to me over 30 years ago.