The Old Fashioned Gown, 1913
Oil on canvas, 60 x 30”
Signed and dated lower right
Olinsky, a native of Russia, assisted John LaFarge with stained-glass and mural designs until 1908, when he made a now-or-never move to Europe to concentrate on easel pictures. When people saw them, they commissioned portraits. He was soon elected to the National Academy of Design and taught there and at the Art Students League for many years. He summered in Old Lyme.
This painting recalls Whistler’s White Girl but has a different spirit. This innocent, at the threshold of womanhood, looks a little lost in her vintage dress. When Olinsky later depicted his own daughters as adults, he saw them as ready to challenge traditional notions about women.