Doris Zinkeisen self-portrait (tactile)
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- Synopsis
- As girls in Scotland, Doris and her younger sister Anna had frustrated their governesses by drawing everywhere all the time, even on their wallpaper. Both sisters became well-known artists in London and volunteer nurses during the war. Doris and Anna used their skills as artists to record what they saw and experienced for future generations. Doris worked as the official artist for the St. John Ambulance Brigade and arrived in the concentration camp Belsen just after it was liberated. The British people who liberated Belsen in 1945 were shocked and angry at what they found. The camp had been without food and water for seven days. 50,000 people were still alive but many were sick with dysentery, typhus and tuberculosis. 20,000 bodies lay unburied. Doris wrote; ˜The shock of Belsen was never to be forgotten. First of all was the ghastly smell of typhus. The simply ghastly sight of skeleton bodies just flung out of the huts. The stable was used to wash any living creatures down before sending them into hospital to be treated. Each stall had a table on which to lay the patient - the German prisoners did the washing.' Her son describes the letters Doris wrote to her husband while she was at Belsen; ˜They are truly heartrending and reflect the agony she endured while doing her work as a war artist. She always told us that the sight was awful, but the smell she could never forget. She had nightmares for the rest of her life until she died in 1990.' Description of portrait The self-portrait was done while the artist was on a world tour, and much of it was painted in her hotel bedroom in Sydney, Australia. It is oil on canvas, measuring 43 inches by 35 inches (1072mm x 866mm) and is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London. Doris has painted herself standing sideways in front of cream drapes. She is looking directly out of the portrait, holding the left-hand edge of the drapes in her left hand as if she is going to move them aside to look behind them. Behind the cream drapes she has painted a black background. She is a compelling looking woman with blue eyes. Her dark brown short hair is styled off her face, looking like a close fitting hat. She is wearing red lipstick and her cheeks have rouge on them. Doris is wearing an elaborate shawl that covers the whole of her body apart from her long, slender neck, left shoulder and a small amount of cleavage. The shawl has a black background with a rich design of flowers and birds of paradise in stunning shades of blues, reds, oranges, greens and white. Under the shawl at her cleavage is a hint of a lace undergarment. Her hand at the drape has long slender fingers and she has a ring on her third finger. Tactile image details The tactile image focuses on Doris, the drapes and background have been left out. As the design of the shawl is so detailed, only 2 large flower heads and 2 birds of Paradise with very long tail feathers have been shown. The braille labels added are: hair, eyes, cheek, lips, neck, shawl, lace at cleavage, hand with ring, flower head, and bird of paradise.
- Copyright:
- 2011
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Publisher:
- RNIB
- Date of Addition:
- 05/25/17
- Copyrighted By:
- RNIB
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Health, Mind and Body
- Submitted By:
- Ian Green
- Proofread By:
- N/A
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.