Elegant ladies in an interior casting flowers from an open window. Ellen Montabla (signed). Oil on canvas. 23 x 31 cm. Reproduced by kind permission of Halls Fine Art Auctioneers, Shrewsbury, UK. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
This is a splendid genre painting, in which much care has been lavished on the details of the period costumes and roses. The scene is not fully explained by the title given here, but the atmosphere is light, in contrast, say, to Anna Lee Merritt's War, in which women have also gathered to watch a scene on the road below, this time from a balcony. Merritt depicts wives and sweethearts catching their last glimpse of their menfolk as they go off to the front. From the flowers, Montalba's subject would seem to be a festival: the woman whose face is turned away is simply casting a flower down, and probably not looking at, or for, anyone in particular on the road below. The lad seems to be a page boy. The other women here look less engaged, and the elderly woman in a black habit, a figure that might otherwise add a rather somber note, seems to be smiling benignly. She is reminiscent of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Neither the situation not the emotions here are heightened — certainly the emotions are far less palpable than in Merritt's much closer, more intimate view of a group of women. Another comparison might be with Henry Stacy Marks's conversation piece, What Is It?, in which onlookers seem to be quite casually gathered to watch some event or other. It may be pertinent that among Clara Montalba's works was a large one entitled La Festa di Sant' Antonio, Venice, which she exhibited in 1879 (see Denney 132). It was quite a different scene: an engraving of it can be found in the British Museum (Museum number 1938,1201.7, no image available on the site). — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Denney, Colleen. At the Temple of Art: The Grosvenor Gallery, 1877-1890. London: Associated University Presses, 2000.
Created 3 August 2024