Art from Grandma's House

About two weeks ago, we spent one brief - and altogether too short - night at my Grandma J's house. I wish that we could have stayed in the area longer, but we had to keep traveling south for a wedding and a family reunion. It was nice to visit with Grandma J in the morning, though. I'm glad that she is doing so well and is able to be in her own home.

When I woke up that morning at my grandma's house, I went down into the basement to blow dry my hair (so as not to wake up other people who were sleeping upstairs). Everything was just about the same from when I lived in Grandma's house as a teenager, even down to the white owl ornaments in the bathroom. I saw a few familiar posters on the walls, and I realized that there are a few distinctive works of art that I associate with my grandparents and their basement:

Norman Rockwell, Girl at Mirror, 1954

A print of this painting is in the back hallway of my grandparents' basement. It hangs on the dark wooden paneling between what used to be Uncle B's room and the study. I associate the movie star Jane Russell with this painting, perhaps partially because my sister and I watched old movies like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in my grandparent's house while we lived there. Interestingly, I learned that Rockwell regretted included Russell's image in this painting, since he received a lot of criticism for doing so.

John Hafen, Girl with the Hollyhocks, 1902

A print of this painting used to be in my mom's old room in the basement, but it isn't there anymore. If I remember right, I think that this print might have been up at the same time as the original decor in her bedroom, including a pink beaded lamp (somewhat similar to this one) and her floral wallpaper (somewhat similar to this wallpaper, although the actual color scheme and design were a bit different).

Charles Courtney Curran, On the Heights, 1909

A print of this painting is currently in my mom's old room, in replacement for the Girl with the Hollyhocks print. I'm guessing that this print was put up around the time that the wallpaper was changed to its current blue-white-pink striped design.

As I was writing this post, it struck me that my grandma and/or grandpa must like pictures of women wearing white dresses! The upstairs bedroom has a reproduction of my uncle's painting Three White Dresses too. (My uncle combined my features and V's features for the bride, used his daughter M as the model for the girl, and my sister L as the model for the baby).

The last work of art that reminds me of my grandparent's house is a modern reproduction of Gainsborough's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (original of 1787). Her dress looks white in the original painting, although I think it has a bluish-gray tint in my grandparents' reproduction. I think that they might have inherited this print from my Great-Grandma L. I remember Grandpa T used to ask me if their copy was valuable - I'm not sure if it is, but it is a nice copy. It hangs in a heavy gold frame in their dining room.