Albert Edelfelt, Finnish
When Selecting Her Portrait Pose, Mrs. Fillmore Chose the Ever-Popular “Wait. Why Did I Come In Here Again?,” 1897
Oil on canvas
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Info about this artist is pointed to by my comment in another blog entry.
/// We can tell by how stiffly she stands.
Doesn’t know what to do with her hands.
The expressions she used—
mouth enthused, eyes confused;
she can’t follow the painter’s commands.
/// It is clear that she isn’t at ease.
Can’t relax, though she’s eager to please.
Mrs. Gallatly’s pose
mainly highlights her clothes.
She’s both rigid and weak in the knees.
/// She is dressed in the best of good taste.
The impression is wealthy and chaste.
Full-length gloves hug her arms,
yet she does display charms.
Shows some bosom and cinched at the waist.
/// Husband John wants a portrait which shows
the fine sensuous woman he knows.
He should find it instructive:
Here she’s far from seductive.
It is when they’re alone that she glows.
/// By her husband she’s loved and adored.
Expert sex is her nightly reward.
She’s the kind of a girl
who, before her toes curl,
will first throb, then get stiff as a board.
/// Mrs. Gallatly got her tattoos
at the docks after taking a cruise.
When he views those “full sleeves”
her man silently grieves,
and he blames, not his wife, but the booze.
–––– or ––––
/// In the hot, sultry summer she planned
to be, by giant ostrich plumes, fanned.
In more mild, cooler weather
she’d donate every feather
to her show-business niece, Sally Rand.