Lady in Yellow (Eleanor Reeves)

Susan Watkins was Norfolk’s very own Impressionist. After building an international reputation as an artist in Paris and New York, she married her long-time suitor, Norfolk native Goldsborough Serpell, in 1912. The couple moved to Virginia, but the artist had already fallen ill and died one year later. Her husband donated 62 works by Watkins to the Museum.

Here, Watkins’ subject is her sister, Eleanor Reeves. Daringly posed against the light in a brilliant yellow dress, she is the embodiment of sophisticated, upper-class leisure.

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