Style Imitating Art: “Jubilee Procession in a Cornish Village”

Welcome to my first presentation as a co-host of 2024 for SIA! Style Imitating Art comes from Salazar, Shelbee, and me. I really am thrilled to be joining them! So, on with the post! You can think of this series as fashion meets art museum! Style Imitating Art challenges people to find inspiration in different art works, create looks based upon that art work, and share them with the curator for that piece. Every other Monday one of us selects an inspiration piece of art and posts the image on their blog. We then invite others to interpret that art work through their style. The following Monday, we share our outfits. The curator shares submissions the following Wednesday on her blog. Salazar chose this week’s art work for this round of Style Imitating Art. If you’d like, you can read why she chose it here. Please send your photo to Salazar by Tuesday, January 30th, at 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com. Style Imitating Art is an interesting way to inspire your outfits. I know it does that for me! You can see a few of my looks here, here, here, and here.

Inspiration art work…

About the artist…

Surprisingly, George Sherwood Hunter doesn’t have a Wikipedia page! Hunter was born in Aberdeen, Scotland on May 30, 1846. Sometime in the 1890s, he visited the town of Newlyn in Cornwall. If you look at a map of England and Scotland, you’ll see that he traveled almost diagonally across Great Britain. He initially stayed at Belle View with his wife, Constance. But, in 1902, they purchased The Malt House.

A little more…

Hunter had a studio at Batema’s Meadow which was close to the Forbes School of Painting now known as the Newlyn School. He taught there as well as “assisted with tuition at the school.” Many artists lived in Newlyn, attracted by the light there as well as the proliferation of models. It was also an inexpensive place to live. Among the models were the fishermen and their families. Hunter was one of the artists who painted the people of Cornwall. At some point, he traveled to the Middle East which led to the production of a large oil painting of the wailing wall which is owned by Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery. When Mrs. Lionel Birch wrote the biography of Stanhope and Elizabeth Forbes, she said:

“Mr. and Mrs. Forbes feel that they owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. G S Hunter, an artist of sincere and thoughtful individuality who is always ready to help and supplement the teacher’s efforts. His own studio is a perfect treasure-house of beautiful and interesting work (source).”

Still more…

Hunter would exhibit many paintings, “including sixteen works in the Royal Academy and over sixty at the Royal Society of British Artists (source).” Hunter died on June 18, 1919. His wife, Constance, passed five months later. He and his wife did not have any children. His studio at the meadow passed to his two sisters in Aberdeen; The Malt House was left to his nephew, Sherwood.

About the art work…

The painting is oil on canvas and measures 51 x 85 in (130 x 216 cm). It was painted in 1897 and is owned by the Royal Cornwall Museum. Depicting a procession of women and children, the painting celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. You may not be able to see it any better than I could, but the dresses are meant to be white. They are holding Chinese lanterns and “snaking” their way through their community. I absolutely adore this painting. Again, this would be something I would definitely buy if I had a place to hang it!

“The painting underwent considerable conservation and restoration in 2010 which meant that, for the first time in over 100 years, the exquisitely painted faces of those in the procession could be seen in all their subtle glory. The delicate beauty in the children’s faces is made all the more remarkable when one takes into consideration the very limited palette Hunter works with (source).”

My interpretation…

My mirror lies! It told me this dress really didn’t look good with these tights. But, Nigel was ready to go, and I didn’t have a backup plan anyway! When I look at the photos, I can see the navy tights work really well with the dress. For a bit, I toyed with the idea of wearing a white dress, but I don’t see those dresses as white. Instead, I chose this Dakota Dobbie Tunic (very limited sizes) for a couple of reasons. It is the closest thing I had to the blues/teals in the painting, and it has these beautiful embroidered flowers on the bodice. They are somewhere on the scale of red to pink to coral. I thought they mimicked the lanterns quite well.

The Lewk!

I love these Leighton booties by Miz Mooz. Even though the color is “ocean,” I see them more as a very deep navy. In fact, you might even mistake them for black. I then pulled out lots and lots of rose gold jewelry. Everything except for the very long sparkly necklace is from Stella & Dot. The pointed necklace is the Rebel. It was a standard of theirs for a long time and is another one of those things you wonder why it was discontinued. The long sparkly necklace is from Banana Republic. My Brahmin purse is the very first one I ever bought! I saw it at VonMaur and paid it little visits until I’d talked myself into buying it. It is one of the smallest purses I have. My phone, wallet, and a lipstick were all I had in it this day.

Wrap it up, Marsha!

I am really looking forward to my first pick for Style Imitating Art. I have really big shoes to fill as Terri is a retired art teacher. I believe this is such a lovely piece of art, but I’m completely stymied by the lack of mention of Hunter on Wikipedia. In fact, if you look up the Newlyn School on Wikipedia, there is a list of artists. But, Hunter is not among them. Another note of interest (probably only to me, though) is we were in London for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. We didn’t intend to be there; it was just a happy accident. But, the streets were so crowded, and many of the places were blocked off. So, can we talk? Do you see white dresses, or are my eyes deceiving me? What do you find most interesting about this painting? Does your community have parades similar to that shown on the painting? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk. I promise to respond as quickly as I can.

Thank you!

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, subscribing or emailing! It truly means so much to me! If you’d like to follow me on Instagram, you can find me here.

Affiliate links, discount codes, and such:

Just a reminder that Marsha in the Middle may use an affiliate link. Those links are usually italicized. If you click or make a purchase from an italicized link I provide, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support. I am an April Cornell Brand Ambassador for another season. You can use my code, MARSHA15, for $15 off any order over $100. Use Marsha12 for 12% off any order of $65 or more at Buykud. I also have an affiliate code for Kantha Bae! Use MarshaintheMiddle in the promo code box for $5 off any order (excluding Bestie restocks)! I have also become a Halftee Partner. Use the code, MARSHA2098, for 20% off any purchase. I am also an affiliate with Clara Sunwoo. You can use my code, MARSHA10, for 10% off your entire order. For the Zuvi Halo Hair Dryer, use Marsha12 to get 12% off your order at this link: https://www.zuvilife.com/products/buy-zuvi-halo-hair-dryer?sca_ref=4039595.v4RNNsWxxF. If items are on sale, you can use Marsha5 for an extra 5% off sale prices. In case you didn’t know, bloggers must disclose the use of affiliate links. That’s why I include this in each post.

Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style,  Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, The Grey Brunette, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World and A Fresh Cup of Coffee. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, and Style Splash. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda, Lisa, and Sue. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

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