Photo trap?

[Sharon Knettell]

Originally Posted by Linda Brandon

Thank you, Sharon, for this kind comment. Your good opinion means a lot to me.

Are you familiar with Sargent's "Dr. Pozzi At Home"? It's one of my favorite paintings and I was trying to get similar reds in the background of my self portrait.

Several years ago, my art club was throwing a fund raising party to coincide with the Sargent exhibit at the Boston Museum.

The affair was held at a Boston club with an Indian name of some tribe their ancestors had long since annihilated. It was the sort of club that if they knew my pedigree, my membership would have been hysterically refused. It was magnificent and posh.

Early in the evening a very grand and elegant lady of advanced age, wafted down the grand spiral staircase. Elbows were jiggled, people were whispering. All I could gather was that she was a southern belle who had snared one of Boston's richest heirs.

I had the good fortune to sit next to this lady on the bus over the museum. She was lively and funny.

We went into the museum to the Sargent exhibit where we came upon the portrait of Dr. Pozzi. It is impossible to describe the electricity of seeing that painting in person. The closest thing I can think of is the opening scene in the movie "Saturday Night Fever" when a young John Travolta swivels down a sidewalk. After staring at the painting for a few seconds, the lady turned to me and cooed in the creamiest southern drawl imaginable. "Oh I could lose mah virtue to him.!"

[Linda Brandon]

Oh Sharon, I love this story! Thank you!

That lady was astute. Here's what my book Sargent (Princeton University Press, 1998) has to say about the esteemed Doctor:

The diabolically good-looking Dr. Pozzi (1846-1919) was a figure of glamour and gossip, a favourite physician of the haute bourgeoisie and something of a male coquette, renowned for his vanity and his love affairs. His lovers are reputed to have included the actress Sarah Bernhardt, who called him 'Doctor Dieu', and tantalisingly, if ancecdotally, Madame Gautreau. His medical specialism was gynaecology, which added some frisson to his liaisons, and there are accounts of demonstrations of his practices (he advocated a bi-manual uterine examination) and of a group he formed called 'The League of the Rose', which verge on the decadent. Yet he was a complex and cultivated man, a bibliophile and collector who owned works by Tiepolo and Guardi, collections of Egyptian and classical sculpture, and decorative art.

The parenthetical information is included for the benefit of those who complain that the Forum is becoming very dull.

And here's the portrait:

[Sharon Knettell]

Linda,

Have you ever actually seen this portrait? At the Boston Museum exhibition Madame Gautreau and Dr. Pozzi were hung side by side.

Looking at the portrait, one can only imagine how successful his practice must have been.

[Kimberly Dow]

Linda - where is your self-portrait? Did I miss it being posted?

[Linda Brandon]

Kim, it's on my website. It would be too cruel to post it here in the same post as 'Dr. Pozzi' and invite comparisons between Sargent's technique and my own.

[Kimberly Dow]

Ahh - now I see it under About The Artist -

that is terrific - I really love that painting! You look very intense and serious about your craft. I also love the idea of a self-portrait on that page instead of a photo.

[Garth Herrick]

Originally Posted by Kimberly Dow

Ahh - now I see it under About The Artist -

that is terrific - I really love that painting! You look very intense and serious about your craft. I also love the idea of a self-portrait on that page instead of a photo.

Linda, your self-portrait would look great with Dr. Pozzi. I love the red theme.