Collection Item
Mrs F O’Brien 1841
Looking at this beautiful portrait you would never suspect it was painted after the sitter’s death. But we know that Sophia had died six months before the painting was exhibited at the artist’s Sydney studio in late September 1841.
A newspaper review of the day confirms that Maurice Felton’s portrait of 21-year-old Sophia Statham O’Brien was painted from a ‘cast taken after her death’ and an ‘engraving said to resemble her’. Felton, a naval surgeon turned artist, may have been present at the time of her death, in order to make the plaster mask of her face.
Collection Item Type:
Oil on canvas
Call Number:
DG 427
Published date:
1841
On display:
Exhibition Galleries
Sponsorship:
Sponsored by Mrs J Thomond Priestley
Copyright Information:
Out of copyright: Creator died before 1955
Please acknowledge: Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales
Display Location:
Exhibition Galleries
Historical Dates
Started
Friday, 1 January 1841
Finished
Friday, 31 December 1841
Started
Friday, 1 January 1841
Finished
Friday, 31 December 1841