Chilly day blues

This morning, we made a quick trip to the library before Peter's nap.  When even new books weren't cheering up my kids on this bleak, chilly day, I knew we needed to get outside to run around.  After lunch, I bundled us up and set the kids loose.  Peter REALLY doesn't like to walk on grass yet though.  Once Charlotte got over her disappointment that we couldn't roam around in the backyard, we all had a good time walking up and down the sidewalk.

It's always a good time to dance in Charlotte's world.

And it's always a good time to stagger around aimlessly if you're Peter.

Charlotte takes her role as big sister very seriously.  Here, she was protecting him from the dirty trash cans.

Yes, I know Peter's coat looks ridiculously large on him.  His 12-month coat was nearly impossible to get on him, but he's swimming in this 18-month one.  I renew my demand for an industry-wide baby clothing revolution and insist that companies begin to sell 15-month clothes!

Wait up!

Charlotte was telling Peter all about the (pretend) baby puppy that we were hunting for on our journey.  Peter was just trying not to fall flat on his face.  

And that's the end of our winter walking adventure!

Update!

I wrote to AskArt.com (which bills itself as the "Artists' Bluebook") to give them information on Georges le Serrec de Kervily's date of death and attached a photo of the portrait to illustrate the story.  A "content manager" wrote back a few hours ago to let me know that based on the information I supplied, they updated de Kervily's page to list his date of death as "c. 1952" and requested by permission to post the photo of the portrait on the page.  How fun!  You can see Aunt Betty's portrait on the site if you click here.

Great Aunt Betty and Count de Kervily

Well, I may have possibly debunked one Stringer family story about the origin of a bed, but I might have redeemed myself by actually helping prove the veracity of another family legend!  We have a beautiful portrait of Corey's Great Aunt Betty (an awesome lady who unfortunately passed away about six years ago) that was given to us when Betty's brother, Corey's Grandpa Stringer, downsized from a house to an apartment.  

With the portrait came some handwritten notes Betty had made about how her husband, Lewis, had made an acquaintance with a portrait artist.  According to the note, which was written on the back of a series of receipts, the artist painted the portrait of Betty for free in exchange for an unveiling party to publicize his services. The artist died "later the same night" of the party, according to Aunt Betty.  It was also intriguing that Aunt Betty referred to the artist using the title of "count".

I was switching on the lights yesterday evening and got to looking at the artist's signature on the painting.

I decided to do an internet search for "Le Serrec de Kervily" just for fun while I waited for the oven to heat up to bake the frozen pizza.  I may not be a gourmet cook, but I can at least pretend to be an amateur art historian.

I definitely found something!  It looks like this was probably painted by Georges le Serrec de Kervily.  According to one site, the artist was "born in Krakow, Russia on Sept. 27, 1883.  Of noble birth, de Kervily was a count in his native land.  He studied at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.  By 1933 he had moved to Los Angeles and was active until 1947."  Another site shows an example of his painting that looks a lot like the one we have in both style and subject.

It's hard to see from the photo I took, but the date on the painting is 1952.  Who knows how de Kervily made his way from Los Angeles to San Antonio, Texas (where Betty and Lew lived) or what de Kervily did between 1947 and 1952.  Since none of the references to de Kervily include a date of death, it's probable that Aunt Betty's note is a strong clue to the year of de Kervily's passing.  I doubt de Kervily was accomplished enough to merit much more than a footnote in history, but it sure is a pretty painting with an intriguing story behind it that we are lucky to hang on our wall.  Looks like I might need to do some more research.  Good thing we have both a librarian AND an art teacher in the family to help me!