Beatrice Turner

stuartwsa · Post by **stuartwsa** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:10 pm

Has anyone here ever heard of the mysterious artist Beatrice Turner, who lived in Newport at the turn of the last century? Upon her death, 1,000 self portraits were found lining the walls of her Newport mansion. Her fascinating story can be found here:

http://www.cliffsideinn.com/beatricehome.html

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:02 am

Wow that's weird!
Ripley's Believe It Or Not is the height of weirdness.

Did she have anything to do with Truman Capote?
For some reason it strikes a bell?

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:05 am

Thanks Stuart, I hadn't heard of her before. It looks like an interesting story to look into. There's quite a few web sites on her.

Rather hard to explain 1000 portraits of yourself. Wonder if she had a lot of mirrors.

stuartwsa · Post by **stuartwsa** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:23 am

A friend told me about her yesterday, and gave me the link. Once I visited the website, I realized that she was odd enough for people here (like myself) to truly appreciate her.
Imagine having one thousand portraits of yourself around the house. That certainly takes narcissism to a new level. Perhaps she was the early twentieth century version of Paris Hilton!

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:44 pm

Neat find, Stuart! How interesting and bizarre at the same time. I wonder if she had some sort of odd "Fall of the House of Usher" thing going on, like if she painted herself in the Victorian clothes of her youth, she would stay young and beautiful forever? Personally, I've only done like 3 self portraits in my life and those were school assignments, not by choice.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:03 am

Shades of the Winchester lady or OCD?

Why does she ring a bell?
I can't remember!
Interesting tho, Stuart.