Lilas Blanc or The Countess
This bust was exhibited at the Salon of the Union des femmes peintres et sculpteurs (Union of Women Painters and Sculptors) in 1891, with the accompanying poem:
Se peut-il qu’un regard aussi plein de tendresse
Soit ici bas?
C’est un parfum léger, qui vous prend,
vous caresse,
Rose et blanc lilas.
Could there be a look more filled with tenderness,
here on Earth below?
It is a light scent that takes hold of you,
caresses you,
Pink and white lilac
Little is known about Gertrude Emily Devenish Walshe and when she became a sculptor is not clear. It is believed that she trained in France. The Journal La Vie Mondaine called her ‘a sculptor of the highest class’. Gertrude was 60 in 1891 when she sculpted this bust. Gertrude died at Marseilles in1907.
