Casque D’or
‘Casque d’or’ means ‘golden helmet’ in French and the title is likely a reference to the sitter’s golden hair. The model in the painting is a local ballerina who had very good poise and was therefore a good sitter.
Olver was a well-known painter in oils of portraits and figures subjects, and also of landscapes. She studied art at the Royal Academy Schools from 1901-1906. She would have been in the vanguard of female students at that time.
She exhibited many times at the Royal Academy from 1910-1946 and with the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Society of Women Artists and at the Paris Salon. She was also a successful illustrator and illustrated an edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses.
