Artist transforms tattered, poorly-lit images into portrait of Mary Walker for Willistead Manor
Michele Van Maurik studied a pair of old photographs and other images from the era
Windsor's most famous home has a new portrait of one of its former inhabitants.
The artist who painted it had little more than a tattered image from a 90-year-old time capsule to refer to.
Michele Van Maurik created the portrait of Mary Walker for Willistead Manor, the 36-room mansion that was once home to Mary and her husband, Edward Chandler Walker, the son of distiller Hiram Walker.
"It was quite the challenge, but I was very excited about it," Van Maurik said.
"So I'm working from the one photo that was found in the cornerstone at the school dedication. I used that primarily, and there was another one as well."
One photo was lit from behind making it hard to see Walker's features, she said.
The other was overexposed and washed out.
"I had enlarged the two photos with the photocopier and used a light table so I could trace the features and get them correct," Van Maurik said.
"And then, using the two of them, I did like a pencil sketch … as best I could of what I believed would sort of, you know, marry the two images together."
LISTEN: New Portrait unveiled at Windsor's historic Willistead Manor
The artist also deduced that Mary Walker's maiden name, Griffin, might be Irish and studied the appearance and clothing of Irish women of the era.
"A lot of the ladies have a very porcelain-like complexion and reddish hair," she said.
"So I did a lot of colour studies and looked at a lot of old portraits of women from Ireland … what sort of colour palette they used."
Van Maurik even recreated some of the clothing Walker wore in the photos.
She got to see the portrait unveiled at the manor on Sunday afternoon.
"I did get to meet several of Hiram Walker's descendants who were in attendance," she said. "And they seem to really like the portrait as well."
Robert Gauthier is the chair of acquisitions for Willistead Manor. He says Mary Walker's portrait is placed nearby her husbands, and the two share similar colours.
"We specifically did that so that they could be together," he said. "A lot of the colour tones and such that in are her painting were derived from her husband's painting just so that they would have a great connection."
Gauthier said the portrait was made possible with private funding, and the response has been "spectacular."