TitleSelf-Portrait
Artist
Colleen Browning
(American, 1918 - 2003)
Date1965
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 24 × 20 in.
Framed: 32 1/2 × 28 1/2 × 1 9/16 in.
SignedSigned on top right: "Colleen Browning"
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, November 1, 1965
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1665-P
Label TextColleen Browning paints herself in a dark sheath with a pink flower print on it, arms crossed, holding two sprigs of Queen Anne’s lace, against a bright pink ground that matches her lipstick. In the background are leaves and flowers - Queen Anne’s lace among them - that are painted randomly, not like wall paper, but more like studies. In her calm pose and direct gaze one feels her confidence, and wonders if this picture is not as sweet as it looks. Think of all the women artists who are placed neatly in the niche of “flower painters,” a niche Browning is perhaps both claiming and defying here by overdoing it, intoxicating us with pink, and covering every surface, except her skin, with flowers. Incidentally, the seeds of Queen Anne’s lace were once used as a contraceptive.
