Throwing off Her Weeds
1846
oil
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
About the artist
Artist
Richard Redgrave
Richard Redgrave was an English landscape artist, genre painter, author, and administrator.
See the richer artist page1846
oil
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Throwing off Her Weeds is a 1846 oil by Richard Redgrave, a British Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
The painting shows a young widow and a seamstress in a room. The widow is trying on a new dress. She's eager to stop wearing black mourning clothes. The seamstress is helping her with a lilac-colored dress, a color for the last phase of mourning. This painting is interesting because it shows a moment when the widow is moving on from her past. She's getting ready to marry again, which was a big decision back then. To learn more about similar artworks, look into the technique of glazing.
A young widow is shown discarding her black mourning clothes to prepare for a new marriage. A seamstress presents a lilac dress, a color deemed suitable for the final stage of mourning, which lasted at least two years at the time. The artist originally included a soldier as her suitor, but removed the figure after criticism; remaining details, such as a bridal bonnet in a hat-box and a sprig of orange blossom on the dressing table, indicate her impending remarriage.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Richard Redgrave was an English landscape artist, genre painter, author, and administrator.
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