WHITE NIGHTS

AN ORIGINAL LITHOGRAPH BY CHARLES SHANNON

The lithographic image is set into a thinly-lined rectangle on the centre of the page. The image, represented in soft grey tones, shows a view into a bedroom in which three women are preparing for night. In the left foreground stand two women in long nightdresses in front of an open doorway beside a curtained window on the leftmost wall of the room. They stand in front of a wash basin set upon a draped stone pillar. The leftmost woman is positioned in three-quarter posture, washing her hands in the basin as she turns to kiss the woman beside her. Her hair is bound on the back of her neck and her night dress slips off of her right shoulder. The women face each other as they kiss. The woman beside her has long hair hanging down her front which she clasps in her right hand. Her left hand holds a flaming candlestick out to her left. The candlestick is centred in the image and its light radiates outwards. Nearby, in the middle ground and centre right, a woman wearing an apron with her hair in a snood bends over at 90 degrees to make up a bed or mattress on the ground. The bed is between the pair of women in the foreground and the woman in the middle ground. The floor is composed of diagonal planks of wood. On the wall above the woman making the bed is a framed mirror that catches and radiates the candle’s light.

MLA citation:

Shannon, Charles. “White Nights.” The Dial, vol. 3, 1893. Dial Digital Edition, edited by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, 2019-2020. Yellow Nineties 2.0, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2020. https://1890s.ca/dialv3-shannon-white-nights/

magazine_images The Dial 3 White Nights Charles Shannon 1893 Original lithograph Group of figures Window, Mirror, Bed, Candle, Candlestick holder, mattress, Wash basin, and Pillar Human Figure, Female Figure/ Woman, Person, People, Clothing, Dress, Apron, Nightgown, and Women 19th century and Victorian Night, Indoor setting, Inside, Interior, Room, and Bedroom