Accession Number

2009.019.024a-b

Description

a. A picture frame made of wood with applied composition ornament of acanthus leaves at each corner, the frame surface-finished with dull bronze powder paint; b. the colourized photographic portrait of Joan Olive Bryden at about age two or three applied to a white glass panel, the subject with shoulder length reddish hair, brown eyes, and wearing a frock with a ruffled collar with blue lacing.

Narrative

This photographic painting depicts Joan Olive Bryden (1887-1959), also known as Mrs. Alastair Douglas Macdonald. She was a granddaughter of Robert and Joan Dunsmuir and daughter of Elizabeth Hamilton Dunsmuir (Mrs. John Bryden) and John Cowper Bryden. She was born in Wellington, B.C. and died in Victoria. She and her husband Major Alastair Macdonald had three daughters and lived at their North Saanich farm named Duntulm. To her friends and family, she was known as "Olive". 

History of Use

The original owners of this photographic painting were Elizabeth Hamilton Dunsmuir (Mrs. John Bryden), daughter of Robert and Joan Dunsmuir, and her husband John Cowper Bryden. It was first used in the Bryden's Wellington, B.C. house until 1894 when the family moved to their Esquimalt house named Dalzellowlie. It was next inherited by their daughter Joan Olive Bryden and taken to Duntulm, the North Saanich, B.C. farm she shared with her husband, Alastair Douglas Macdonald and their three daughters. The painting was then inherited by their daughter Elizabeth Mary Katherine Macdonald (1911-1979), and then by her son, who donated it to The Castle Society. 

Date

circa 1889 – 1890

Dimensions

35 x 30 cm

Material

Wood; Paint, powder; Glass; Paint

Subject/Image

Joan Olive Bryden

Medium

Photographic; Paint

Support

Glass

Technique

Painted

Country of Origin

Canada