Mrs. Norman Taylor

The elegant Helen Daniel Taylor is the subject of two portrait sketches by Violet Oakley. In both, the artist uses toned paper and light-colored pastels, which dramatically highlight the figure. Not an artist herself, per se, Taylor made a career in the art world as a color consultant and was a co-author of the 1950 Descriptive Color Names Dictionary, an industry standard in the commercial use of color. The graceful gown she wears in this full-length study is a color very close to one called "bright lavender" in Taylor’s book.