"Self Portrait" by James Clarke Hook RA, 1819-1907 (original) (raw)

Pluming the Helmet

James Clarke Hook, RA, 1819-1907

c. 1852 (see McMaster 92)

Oil on canvas

H 65 x W 47 cm.

© Worcester City Museums, accession no. FA039

No wonder Juliet McMaster sees this as an "appealing composition" (91). Assessing the effect of the feathered adornment, perhaps intended as a painter's prop, the young woman in her rose-coloured dress is herself as pretty as a picture. Text by Jacqueline Banerjee; photograph kindly released on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-NC-SA), and downloaded from Art UK. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]