“The Wedding Dress” Perfectly Captures a Young Woman’s Grief 

“The Wedding Dress” by Frederick Elwell is a study in contrasts. A young woman dressed all in black kneels on the floor of a dark bedroom, her face resting on her arms. Beside her is an open chest; on the floor lies her white satin wedding dress and the white shoes she wore (or perhaps planned to wear?) on her wedding day. Inside the chest, we see what looks like a veil and a yellow orchid corsage (symbolizing joy and new beginnings). The bed linens on the white-canopied bed and the bed itself are also white.

Self-portrait by Frederick Elwell
Credit: curiator.com

The woman is obviously bereft, but the context isn’t entirely clear. We can assume that her husband or husband-to-be has died because she is clad in mourning clothes. And while we cannot see her face, her demeanor and posture suggest great sadness and terrible grief. Perhaps she is looking through her wedding wardrobe to comfort herself? Or perhaps she is putting her wedding dress away, closing a chapter of her life? Was she a newlywed when her husband died or did they never make it to the altar at all? The whiteness of the dress and the seemingly fresh flower suggest a newness to her grief.  But that’s all we know. 

Still, regardless of the context, the symbolism in “The Wedding Dress” is dramatic and clear: Black and white coexist in the painting the way life and death, joy and pain, and love and loss coexist in life. The joy this young woman felt such a short time ago, when she, perhaps, shared her bed with the man she loved, is gone. And, at least for this moment captured on canvas, only pain and regret remain. 

In a poignant footnote, Elwell’s model for “The Wedding Dress,” a young woman named Violet Price, lost her husband in WWI a few years after the painting was completed.

About the Artist

Frederick W. Elwell ( 1870-1958) was an English painter whose work spanned the mid-Victorian Era through the early 20th century. Known for painting domestic scenes and portraits of the townspeople in his native Beverly, he was a member of The Royal Academy, The Royal Society of Painters, and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Elwell painted “The Wedding Dress” in 1911, although the painting more accurately reflects the popular Victorian themes of weddings and death.