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Portrait of Young Florence Nightingale,
The 39th Nurse (1820 – 1910)
Original Acrylic on Canvas, 30”h x 23”w, Framed

 

“Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.”

Florence Nightingale

 

        Florence Nightingale, pioneer of modern nursing, merged her intelligence and iron will to break with Victorian tradition and used her perseverance and persistence to live a modest life serving humanity. This portrait presents her as a very young woman with shiny auburn hair and inquisitive grey eyes who grew to be 5’8” tall. I painted Florence surrounded by a darkened mist of chaos and change as she began to forge her way to becoming a legend in her own time. Born into upper-class English society and wealth as the daughter of William Edward (W.E.N.) and Fanny Nightingale, she never married. Instead, Florence choose to navigate uncharted waters and brought the practice of nursing performed by derelict and destitute English gentlewomen to a respected profession in the mid-19th century.

 

(l to r)

• Lea Hurst, her beloved 14-bedroom childhood home in Derbyshire, England (1825), was the family’s summer residence. Here she found the respite so often needed, especially when her health was compromised. She often gazed out the second floor balcony past the stone pillars onto the rolling hills of the countryside.

 

• Claydon House (National Trust) was home to her brother-in-law and sister, Sir Harry and Lady Parthenope Verney, in Buckinghamshire, England. Here she would spend many months later in life in her private bedroom writing and looking out onto the river and wide-expanse of the green fields.

 

• Athena the Owl was rescued by Florence and sister Parthe at the Greek Parthenon in Athens. A symbol of wisdom, she cared for her little furry companion for years until the owl died the night before she left for the Crimean War. Athena now resides under glass at the Florence Nightingale Museum (London).

 

• First published in 1860, her Notes On Nursing, continues to be the bible of the early days of the organization of the nursing profession, still being reprinted today.

 

• Her beautiful huge gold, topaz, and emerald cross is on display at the Florence Nightingale Museum.

 

• The famous and delicate two-and-three circled crocheted Nightingale collar is on display at the Florence Nightingale Museum.

 

• The green velvet dress was probably bought in Paris for required family social occasions during which she would sing or play Mozart on the piano for the guests. Florence loved opera and was able to enjoy it when visiting the great halls in Europe.

 

• Her beloved white cashmere shawl was from India.

 

• The 3,400-acre, storied and expansive Embley Park was the main residence of the Nightingale family in Hampshire, England. They had more than 70 gardeners working the property.

 

• The famous Coxcomb graph, her calibrated tool used to stastistically measure mortality of her beloved soldiers during the Crimean War. As a master statistician, she was the first woman to be accepted into the Royal Statistical Society.

 

• The Florence Nightingale Rose by Jackson & Perkins® will be available on May 12, 2010, International Nurses Day, made available as part of the global celebration of the 100th anniversary of her death.

 

• Her beloved British Flag defining her roots under the reign of her friend, the Queen, Victoria.

 

• The singing British Nightingale, imagery of a common-sense voice heard above the crowd.