Dame Alice Ellen Terry (Choosing), George Frederick Watts.
On Wikimedia Commons, title page here.
Original is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
A little Victorian morality play, choosing between the camellias, which are dramatically beautiful but don’t have a strong scent — representing worldly pursuits, and the violets, more subdued in appearance, but with a a stronger scent — representing the more subtle higher virtues.
The same year this was painted, the artist, then in his late 40’s, married the sitter, who was 17. The marriage lasted a year.
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