Victorian Child Thinking
Artist
Olivia Parker
(American, born 1941)
Date1985
Mediumdye diffusion transfer prints (Polaroid)
DimensionsImage: 20 1/2 × 24 in. (52.1 × 61 cm)
Support: 22 × 29 7/8 in. (55.9 × 75.9 cm)
Support: 21 3/4 × 28 1/2 in. (55.2 × 72.4 cm)
Support: 22 × 29 7/8 in. (55.9 × 75.9 cm)
Support: 21 3/4 × 28 1/2 in. (55.2 × 72.4 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineJane Reese Williams Collection, Gift of Cindy Ewing, 2012
Object number2012.16.1
DescriptionStill life composition with: box of IdleHours brand crayons, purple flower blossom, scrap of paper with handwriting in black ink, three single butterfly wings, a metal container, and a 19th century photographic image of a child and a girl or young woman.Text Entries
In this still life, the artist uses nineteenth-century photographic portraits as a starting point for the imagination. The picture’s title suggests that the array of objects – crayons, a scrap of paper, some butterfly wings – are part of the thoughts or memories of the children, photographed so long ago but appearing right in front of our eyes.
The photograph was removed from its original mat. The original mat was dented in the lower right corner and attached directly to a piece of old foam core. The photograph was also taped to the mat using non-archival tape. The photograph was removed from the mat by carefully cutting the tape away from the board. The old foam core backing included a printed artist label on the verso upper right corner. This label was removed from the foam core and is now stored in the Accession file.
The donor is a former member of the New Mexico Council on Photography and has requested that the works be added to the Jane Reese Williams Collection of photographs by women artists. Ewing has previously donated about ten photographs to the collection, at least five of them by female photographers.
On View
Not on view