A Rare Portrait of Blanca

After her trial and acquittal, Blanca took her young son back to her hometown of Vina del Mar in Chile. Blanca married again on December 22, 1921 to Fernando Santa Cruz Wilson, a senator in Chile's parliament who came from an illustrious family of politicians. 

Now as Mrs. Blanca Santa Cruz, she posed for a portrait. The Russian artist Boris Grigoriev came to Chile in the late 1920s to study at the art academy. His portrait of Blanca is remarkable for capturing the woman's contradictions of daintiness and deadliness. 

The color palette is soft and light. She poses near a window. Her black hair is colored auburn. Surrounded by springtime colors, she wears a white blouse and a floral scarf draped softly around her neck. Yet her body is posed rigidly. Her spine is a sharp, slanted angle. Her arms are crossed and her elbows form another sharp angle. Her face is drawn in profile, not smiling but stern, and her eyes gaze off the edge of the canvas at what could be bitter memories. 

The painting -- and other works by Grigoriev -- can be viewed on the website of the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in Chile. 

http://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40451.html