蝴蝶～

Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson was one of the most technically accomplished artists of her generation. Her mastery of draftsmanship and oil technique, combined with her ambitious sense of composition and eye for detail, led to an impressive career that was tragically cut short and was much overlooked for much of the 20th century.

薩拉·帕克斯頓·鮑爾·道森是同代人中繪畫技藝最高超的畫家之一。她精通畫圖和油畫，再加上雄心勃勃的構圖感和對細節的觀察入微，她的繪畫事業本該如日中天，但不幸的是，她並未獲得應有的成就，並在20世紀的大部分時期籍籍無名。

She was born and raised in Philadelphia. Her father was an engraver, so her artistic grounding began from early childhood. Her formal training however did not commence until after the death of her father in 1872 when she enrolled as a private pupil of Christian Schussele at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was one of many American women who then went on to Paris to study, joining the atelier of Évariste Vital Luminais for three years from 1873.

她在費城出生和長大。她的父親是一位雕刻師，因此她從小就受到藝術上的薰陶。然而，直到1872年她的父親去世後，她才作為克里斯汀·舒賽爾的私人學生去賓夕法尼亞大學美術學院就讀，開始接受正式的繪畫培訓。之後她同其他美國女性一樣，前往巴黎繼續學習。1873年她加入生命之光工作室，並呆了三年。

In 1885 she returned to the United States and widened her repertoire to include plein-air landscapes before returning to France. She adopted a poetic style that reflected many influences: the Pre-Raphaelites (especially in her choice of overtly religious subject matter), French Symbolism, and fairy painting (which was at its height in Britain in this period). The influence of symbolism and her love of iconography is evident in this work painted in 1891, the year she moved to Brighton, England. Its Art Nouveau details and choice of butterfly motif make it the perfect evocation of the age.

1885年，她回到美國，並在返回法國前，加入了戶外寫生風景畫，擴大了自己的繪畫範圍。她的繪畫風格偏詩意，並反映出她受到很多畫派的影響：前拉斐爾派（尤其是她故意選擇宗教題材），法國象徵主義和童話繪畫（當時童話繪畫正風靡英國）。今天這幅畫創作於1891年，可以明顯地看出她受到象徵主義的影響以及她對象徵手法的熱愛。同年她搬去了英國布萊頓。畫中新藝術風格（19世紀末20世紀初流行於歐洲和美國的裝飾藝術和建築風格，採用基於花、葉等自然形狀的複雜設計和曲線圖案）的細節描繪和蝴蝶主題都完美地再現了那個時代。