Kitty of Frying Pan Alley

Artist Sir Oswald Birley (Auckland, New Zealand, 1880 - 1952)

Associated Kitty Brooks

Datec. 1921

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsHeight: 126.8 cm, Width: 101.5 cm
Frame Size: Height: 146.5 cm, Width: 120 cm

AcquisitionPresented in 1986 by Ruth, Lady Fermoy.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationOn Display - Gallery 14

Object numberABDAG007490

Keywords

About MeFlower selling was a recognised profession in London up to the last war. Flower girls clustered around Piccadilly Circus, their baskets bringing colour and a breath of country air to the drab urban scene. In the city itself - where Kitty lived and worked - buttonholes were sold to a predominantly male population.

Kitty must have provided the much acclaimed society portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley with a welcome relief from his usual sitters - royalty, viceroys and Prime Ministers. Nevertheless there was criticism at the time that he had portrayed his working class sitter as looking like a well-behaved schoolgirl.

Exhibited for the first time in 1921, the painting aroused much interest from middle class viewers, who found it hard to believe that a mere flower girl could be quite so beautiful. The debate ran in "The Illustrated London News", in which contemporary photographs of the real Kitty proved her to have the same clear skin and fresh, natural beauty as the girl in the picture.

ADOPT AN ARTWORK. This artwork is available for Adoption. To find out more please email AAGMSupport-Us@aberdeencity.gov.uk
More About Me

Collections Wall

Frying Pan Alley in London may have been called so because of the frying pans ironmongers would have hung outside their shop as an early form of advertising! Pantastic!

Exhibitions

Gallery 14 - Art of Empowerment