Beschreibung:

Esther Frances (Fanny, Francesca) Alexander American, 1837-1917 Clorinda , 1865 Inscribed Clorinda Amadei / 19 years of age / painted August 1865 / at Faidello / lives 2d house at Modena after the dogana / north Tuscan frontier / on the post road from Pistoia to Modena / Francesca Alexander / of Florence / from notes of Oct 16 1865 [?] on the verso. Inscribed by another hand Clorinda / by Fanny Alexander / Villa Brichieri / Bellosguardo / A Whitney on the reverse Oil on artist board 15 1/4 x 12 inches Daughter of Boston portrait painter Francis Alexander Esther Francis [Fanny] Alexander moved to Florence with her family at the age of fifteen. For more than fifteen years they resided at the Villa Brichieri, in Bellosquardo, overlooking Florence. Essentially self taught, Alexander painted peasants, striving to preserve their folk legends and customs and demonstrating concern for their welfare. Soon after completing the present work, depicting a young woman whose likeness she rendered on several occasions, Francesca wrote to her Boston friend, Lilly Cleveland on September 2, 1865, Every morning I used to paint; your Clorinda was repeated three times in different attitudes.... Her dress is nearly the same which I painted in your picture of her [Collection Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY], she never looked so pretty in anything else.... I became very fond of my little Clorinda this year; she was so innocent and affectionate, and knew so many rispetti and stornelli, and queer legends, and stories about all the families in the neighborhood; innocent stories understand; scandal had no place in her pure and vigorous mind." C