Rhapsodies

Today’s sketch is another piece of Neoclassicismfrom the RISD Art Museum ‘s Pendleton House wing. I confess that earlier I’d facetiously called a lot of this work “black velvet for rich people” and this piece is no exception. Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii by Randolph Rogers is based on the character from Edward Bulwer-Lytton‘s best-selling novel, The Last Days of Pompeii. (a book so popular and long lasting enough to have an 80s miniseries  done of it .) and he did at least 77 copies of it the photo on the bottom is showing what it looks like is actually the one from the New York collection I’ve also seen one at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts… Who said that Commercialism was a modern invention?