Art Gallery Of Ontario

Francoise in Green, Sewing, 1908–1909, oil on Canvas, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, Gift of the Ida Belle Young Art Acquisition Fund, 2009.0006. Nearby other works in which young working-class children are dressed and posed as upper-class children, this painting captures a fair-skinned white girl of about 10 seated, opulently dressed, and engaged with her sewing pastime. This work is 81 by 65 cm and hung in portrait orientation. The work is framed by a gold-coloured wood frame which is 12 cm wide and embellished with carved decorative reliefs. The girl has fine brown hair parted at the side and falling over her shoulder in loose ringlets. Her hair is held back with a red bow over her left ear. She looks down at her fingers, a hands-length from her face, as they presumably thread a needle. Her top is a cape or shawl-like lacy construction that appears through the painting technique to be like frothy foamy water with layers of bright white peeping through blues, greys and muted