photograph
photograph

photograph

Artwork

Accession Number
M070
Alternate Name
[BLANK]
Description
A black and white photograph of a stained glass window in-situ in Craigdarroch's drawing room, 1928 depicting a woman leaning on a high light-coloured block wall, her head forward and supported by her right arm and hand, her dress is loose and with a large sash around her waist, her left hand straight down by her side and holding a fully opened fan of peacock feathers, a large white swan in the foreground with its head turned up looking at the woman, the arch-topped window framed in a band of repeating up and down three petal-like pieces of glass with a crystal in the middle of each.
Narrative
This photograph depicts a stained glass window that was installed in Craigdarroch in 1890 and removed in 1928 three or four months after it was damaged in a snowball fight among Victoria College students. Victoria College student Victor Rogers witnessed the event. He told Craigdarroch's curator Bruce Davies that the snowball went through the woman's face. He said the window was soon removed and stored in the Castle's boiler room. He never saw it again. The donor of this photograph stated that the window was placed in the boiler room for safe-keeping but that it was damaged more severely whilst in the boiler room.

In 1999, The Castle Society used this photograph to create a reproduction of the original. The design is based on the 1862 oil painting titled "Odalisque" by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896). See: https://www.wikiart.org/en/frederic-leighton/odalisque-1862
History of Use
The photograph was taken at the donor's wedding held at Craigdarroch in 1928 shortly before it was damaged in a snowball fight and removed. The photograph was in her possession in Victoria, B.C. until it was donated to Craigdarroch.
Date
1928
Artwork Title
Odalisque
Country of Origin
Canada

Related Association
Craigdarroch (depicts)