Rosina Ferrara (1861-1934) was a beauty from the island of Capri off the coast of Italy. You see her picture in art museums all over the world because artists loved to paint and draw her, especially Frank Hyde and John Singer Sargent. For them she had an exotic beauty, one that reminded them of the women in ancient Greek art.
She had light brown skin, black curly hair and eyes like a panther. She looked like she was part Arab and part Greek. Some say that on her mother’s side she is related to Barbarossa, the Turkish pirate. She came from the town of Anacapri where the people are markedly Arab-looking.
Charles Sprague Pearce, a painter from Boston, said of her:
the tawney skinned, panther eyed, elf-like Rosina, wildest and lithest of all the savage creatures on the savage isle of Capri
Capri is a beautiful island near Naples. In the 1800s artists and writers loved to go there to do their work. The island was not only famous for its beauty, but also for its beautiful women, who looked exotic to the French, British and Americans. In the French imagination it was the sort of place where you might fall in love with a fisherman’s daughter (and later leave her).
And on that beautiful island of beautiful exotic women, some said that the most beautiful of all was Rosina Ferrara.
She was discovered by the French artist Chatran when she was about age 14. She became a model for Edward Vaux and then the British artist Frank Hyde.
Sargent arrived in Capri in 1878 when she was 16 or 17. He went to visit Frank Hyde, telling him what kind of model he was looking for. He showed her Rosina:
When he saw her he was so fascinated with her that he made three studies in profile of her, all of which he painted in my studio.
Sargent would go on to paint her 12 times during his year on Capri. Sargent tends to make people taller and thinner than they are, but he is good at catching their mood.
Sargent did not pay her for modelling, by the way. Instead he gave her a sculpture he made of her.
In addition to Chatran, Vaux, Hyde and Sargent, she has also been painted by George Randolph Barse (husband), Alfred Stevens (lover), Charles C. Coleman (good friend), Jean Benner and Charles Sprague Pearce (that painter from Boston). Many of these paintings are in private collections.
In 1883 she had a daughter, Maria Carlotta. No one knows who the father was. Some say it was a prince. She was famous enough and beautiful enough where that would not be out of the question.
In the middle 1880s she was the mistress of Alfred Stevens, a Belgian painter.
In 1891 she married an American painter, George Randolph Barse, and went away with him to live in America, in upstate New York in Katonah. She died of pneumonia at age 76 in Flushing, Queens in New York City.
See also:
Her mistake was moving to Queens…
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Thank you so much Abagond for putting up Rosina’s bio. She’s a great beauty.
Stephanie B.
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Sounds pretty much like Orientalism to me. You don’t have a problem, Abagond, with the Eurocentric exotification of the darker feminine Other?
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Excellent question!
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I am of two minds about it:
On the one hand I was pleasantly surprised to find out that so many white artists thought she was beautiful enough to paint – even if sometimes they made her look whiter than she was. (Something that still goes on: think Beyonce.)
On the other hand, though, there is clearly a noble savage/dusky maiden/colonial gaze thing going on. That is why I quoted Pearce and brought up the thing about fishermen’s daughters.
I am glad that Barse made an honest woman out of her – someone in 1883 clearly did not.
In 1849 a book came out in France about a man who fell in love with a fisherman’s daughter in Capri, but he did not marry her and when he had to go back to Paris he did not take her with him. Good enough to have an affair with, but not good enough to marry.
So that tells you about where Rocina and the women of Capri fell on the white scale of the universe. And of course I cannot agree with that.
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Amen, Abagond.
At that time, Southern Italians weren’t considered white at all. That was reflected in the debates on immigration in the U.S. Many nativists didn’t want Catholic and Jewish immigrants to the U.S. just as people didn’t want Latino/as, Middle Easteners, and Africans coming to this country.
Rosina was lucky that Mr. Barse thought her worthy enough to marry and make a family with her.
Also, in one of the paintings made by John Singer Sargent, the profile of Rosina against the gold background, Rosina reminds me of Chilli of TLC.
As for the Orientalism factor, there was stong elements of it when some artists came to Southern Europe/Middle East/Africa back in the late 19th century. Western audiences were looking for alternative ways to living in a fast-paced Industrial society. There were others who were seeking escape from restrictions of Victorian moral life. Some of them took advantage of the women of Southern Europe/Africa. That’s the untold underside of fetishization of women of color.
Stephanie B.
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Fair enough, Abagond, thanks for the reply, and for the informative post.
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You are welcome. And thank you for your blog. Reading it sometimes gives me ideas of what to write about.
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Here’s a blog by a descendant of Rosina Ferrara. It’s called On Being Italian at:
http://mariacocuroccia.blogspot.com/
And a photo of Rosina and Randolph Barse:
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Macon_d,
You are welcome to comment anytime.
Steph
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La Reyna: thanks for the link and the photo.
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Abagond,
You’re welcome. Rosina Ferrara is truly a beauty!
Stephanie B.
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