Mary Kelly - Artist?

[Sam Flynn]

She might well have done the odd stint as an artist's model, Mike - but that would be a separate matter to her allegedly being and "artist of no mean pretension", the clear meaning of which is that she herself was the "artist" (or "artiste") in question.

Sam and Janie....although I agree with you both that its likely the reference should likely be taken in broad terms..since we dont know of any particular artistic endeavors she was involved in....but as Kensei mentioned based on my earlier post....I would not be surprised if she was an artists model on occasion. If you were to place her right arm so that her hand was just behind her head...you almost have a stereotypical figure sketch position of the period....female reclining on daybed.... Sickerts sketches could well be the type of thing she might have posed for in lieu of soliciting perhaps. This was done very often during that artistic boom period in the mid to late Victorian period... as seen often in sketches from Paris at the time.

I believe it was primarily prostitutes who posed for many of those artists.

Cheers Sam, Jane, all.

[Jane Coram]

Hi Kensei,

There have been discussions here on whether or not Mary was literate. It's worth checking this thread out as there is some interesting information there.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=2029

I tend to agree with Sam here, Jukka and think that if there was any basis in fact in the report that it should have read 'artiste', and that she was perhaps a bit theatrical.

Jane
xxxx

[Sam Flynn]

Indeed, Jukka - thanks for remembering Mary Ballina, by the way! - an "artist" is not necessarily one of the visual type. Kelly allegedly told Lizzie Albrook that she had a relative on the London stage, and she herself was singing a music-hall song on the night she died.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Kensei!

Yes, that reading sounds odd! An even more confusing thing is, that according to McCarthy she received a letter from Ireland. So, the one mailing the letter knew her to be able to read! A possible explanation; she had some difficulties with her eye-sight...

The only known piece of art performed by MJK is singing "The violet..." during The evening...

Oh-oh; Sam Flynn once presented a singer "Mary Ballina" on these boards, thus she is one of these "MJK-couldbes"!

All the best
Jukka

[kensei]

If Mary Jane was so well educated, seems odd that Barnett would have to read the paper out loud to her. As for her being an artist, it was probably a reporter's mistake about her claim to have been an artist's model as perrymason touched on.

[Malcolm X]

Maybe the fact that her killer left her in what could easily be described as a "positioned" state...much like a female model reclining on a daybed in contemporary sketches by local artists in London and Paris,..was that perhaps an homage to her artistic side? Had she posed like that for other artists before perhaps?

Just speculatin.

Best regards all.

the killer put Kelly into that pose, so he could gut her/ carve her up easily .......... real sick stuff... his focus of attention was to wipe out all traces of Womanhood... but in an imbecilic way...

cutting her face up like that is semi- madness/ hatred... but in a trance like state....i try not to think about it too much

Maybe the fact that her killer left her in what could easily be described as a "positioned" state...much like a female model reclining on a daybed in contemporary sketches by local artists in London and Paris,..was that perhaps an homage to her artistic side? Had she posed like that for other artists before perhaps?

Just speculatin.

Best regards all.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

MJK would probably have made sketches for a drink, had she been a drinking, oh sorry, painting/drawing artist...

Obviously they meant her to be an artist singing, for example: I plucked a violet from my mother's grave...

All the best
Jukka

[Mike Covell]

And here I am hoping to find one of Walter Sickert laid naked on a bed....or perhaps not!

[Supe]

As we know, an awful lot of nonsense was printed in the wake of all the murders, as is the norm for almost any tragedy. As a cautionary corrective, I have often counselled that we read the initial reports on any such event. This was brought home to me yet again the other day. Rummaging in the basement, I have been reading many old magazines and I came across the first Life magazine to carry news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Among many factual errors was the statement that the US forces had managed to sink one Japanese aircraft carrier.

As every schoolboy knows, that didn't happen. In the same way, I doubt there is much point in scouring flea markets for oils or sketches signed MJK.

Don.

[Monty]

I dont think they were referring to THAT type of art.

Monty

[Nothing to see]

I was quite expecting Walter to crop up at some point, although I was expecting a theory about them meeting through the art world or something!

Well OK. They meet at The National Gallery.

Even better, Princess Louise was a pseudo artist. She hung around these dudes.

She brings her nephew, Prince Albert Victor, to the scene and....

Stephen Knight was right all along!

[Mike Covell]

I was quite expecting Walter to crop up at some point, although I was expecting a theory about them meeting through the art world or something!

[Nothing to see]

Hull Daily Mail, Novemeber 12th 1888

LATEST PARTICULARS
WHO THE VICTIM WAS
ANOTHER ACCOUNT
PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAMS THIS MORNING

London, Monday

Further inquiries during the night have thrown little fresh light on the circumstances of the Whitechapel murder. There is good reason to believe that the unhappy woman Kelly was a native of Cardiff, where her family, according to her statement, were well-to-do people. She is stated to have been very well educated, and an artist of some pretensions.

More conjecture or is there something to this rumour?

(This is the bit where lots of paintings turn up on ebay, allegedly painted by MJK)

No, co-painted by Kelly and Walter Sickert.