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Jeunesse Dorée

Subject Kathleen Nancy Woodward British
1942
Not on view
Brockhurst celebrates the beauty of Kathleen Woodward, whom he had renamed Dorette (Gift). They met in the late nineteen twenties when she was a young model at the Royal Academy Schools and he a visiting professor, and she soon displaced his wife Anaïs at the center of his art. This pose echoes one established in "Ophelia," a painting of ca. 1937 that Brockhurst presented to the Academy as his diploma piece in 1938. In the print, a modern knit dress replaces the dark gown worn by Dorette in the painting, while the title "Jeunesse Dorée" (Golden Youth) erases any implied connection to Hamlet's doomed lover. Published in 1942, the print responds to changing circumstance–made after artist and model had moved to New York in 1939, and Brockhurst been granted a divorce in 1940. They would marry in 1947.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Jeunesse Dorée
  • Artist: Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (British, Birmingham 1890–1978 Franklin Lakes, New Jersey)
  • Subject: Kathleen Nancy Woodward (British, 1912–1995)
  • Date: 1942
  • Medium: Etching; third state of three, artist's proof
  • Dimensions: Plate: 10 11/16 × 8 11/16 in. (27.2 × 22 cm)
    Sheet: 14 1/2 × 11 in. (36.9 × 27.9 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Hortense B. Kapp, 1993
  • Object Number: 1993.1125
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Portrait of a Woman, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst British, Oil on wood
Portrait of a Woman
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
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Una (The Young Creole), Gerald Leslie Brockhurst British, Etching; tenth state of ten
Una (The Young Creole)
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
1929
Dorette, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst British, Etching; sixth state of six
Dorette
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
Kathleen Nancy Woodward
1932
James McBey, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst British, Etching; ninth state of nine
James McBey
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
James McBey
1931
Yolande (Florence Layzell, Mrs. Henry Rushbury), Gerald Leslie Brockhurst British, Etching; third state of three
Yolande (Florence Layzell, Mrs. Henry Rushbury)
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
Florence Harriet Rushbury
1920

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