# The White Parasol

- By: Robert Reid (born Stockbridge, MA 1862-died Clifton Springs, NY 1929)
- Date: ca. 1907
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 36 x 30 in. (91.4 x 76.2 cm.)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=20691)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/4c1ac8f2119cb137444147db88d65d88.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This painting shows Robert Reid’s young wife, Elizabeth Reeves, in the year of their wedding. Reid painted Elizabeth in a white gown surrounded by many different colored flowers to emphasize her flawless porcelain skin. Their marriage lasted only a few years, and here the delicate colors and idealized setting suggest the optimism of young love. Reid's many paintings of girls immersed in nature emphasize the fragility and beauty of women, as if he equated them with the flowers, trees, and clouds.