The Chaplins of Tuscany

The French painter Élisabeth Chaplin would have first been known, in her lifetime, as a descendant of Charles Joshua Chaplin, her grandfather, a renowned artist who taught Mary Cassatt. The other Charlie Chaplin wasn’t famous until Élisabeth was nearly thirty and had already established herself as a naturally gifted, self-taught painter. At ten, she was given a box of paints; a self-portrait she painted at fourteen, featuring a green umbrella, hangs in the Uffizi. That painting shows a bright young woman, with a steady, determined gaze, suffering no fools gladly. She painted for the rest of her long life, living largely in Tuscany, mostly in the Florentine hills. She was inspired by the Tuscan fifteenth century, Japanese prints, and the Nabis, and her work often referenced Greek mythology, but some of her most memorable paintings depict family life, such as the dramatically lit Three Sisters, or, indeed, show herself, with brushes and palette in hand.