!["Femme Fatale" by Chris Semtner is reminiscent of a character played by Barbara Stanwyck in 1944.](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/hash/29/a2/29a2ef47306d3b978cad2c1872be3b3e.jpg ""Femme Fatale" by Chris Semtner is reminiscent of a character played by Barbara Stanwyck in 1944.")
A new 34” by 38” painting placed on exhibit Friday by Chris Semtner at Visual Art Studio portrays a woman in a strappy red dress standing in the corner of an art gallery.
Semtner’s perspective allows the viewer to glimpse this “Femme Fatale” from a distance as if he or she were a video camera placed in the opposite corner of the ceiling looking down.
“She reminds me of Barbara Stanwyck in ‘Double Indemnity,’” said Semtner, a curator at the Poe Museum on East Main Street, of the painting’s subject. Stanwyck was nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for her role in the 1944 film.
The red dress worn by “Femme Fatale,” said Semtner, is painted in the style of the dress women wore in the 1940’s. Also, the subject’s hair is blonde just like Stanwyck’s character in “Double Indemnity.”
According to Semtner, the subject of “Jane Stanard” is Edgar Allen Poe’s first love who died when he was 15 years old. She is buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery on 4th Street in downtown Richmond.
“Mary Rogers” also portrays a subject with a connection to writer Poe. As described in a display at the Poe Museum, she was a woman who died mysteriously in New York in the early 1840’s. Poe researched what happened to her. Her killer and the circumstances of her death were never found.
“Forgotten Memories” will be on display through Friday, March 26, 2010.
Visual Art Studio is located at 208 West Broad Street and can be reached at 804/644-1368. Gallery hours are Tuesdays to Fridays, noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m.
Comments