Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Rose Flanders Bascom, 1880-1915


Before taking a recent trip to New Hampshire, I stumbled upon a small bit about Rose Flanders Bascom who was born in Contoocook, NH in 1880.  In 1905 she joined the circus and became a noted lion tamer before dying from an infections from a lion mauling in 1915.  She left behind her husband, Alfred and young daughter, Agnes.  I could not find any sort of photo of Rose but I felt like I just had to paint her, she sounded too interesting to be forgotten.

Oil on canvas 24"x30".

5 comments:

holly aka golly said...

I'm completely intrigued! Wonderful portrait, Vivienne!

Unknown said...

Viewing your paintings is like taking a trip through someone's family album - nostalgic, wonderful, with just a smidge of history. I LOVE all your work and you make it that much better with your fantastic choice of NAME! :D Rock on!

vivienne strauss said...

Thank you Holly & Mel though I can't claim credit for the name, she was a real person :)

Unknown said...

Rose Flanders Bascom is my great grandmother. Your notes about her must have come from something I was searching. I have little info on her after she joined the circus. I came across this by just putting her name in "Bing". Interesting.

vivienne strauss said...

Thank you for commenting Joelsa! What a crazy world. If you are able to find out further information about your great grandmother, I'd love to hear about it. She sounds too incredible to be forgotten. I couldn't find any images for her, so this depiction is completely imaginary of course. Feel free to contact me at my email listed in my profile.