Just a little something I whipped up. Charlotte here is feeling insecure about her new marriage to Clint, especially since he seems to still be hung up on his first wife, Vivian, who mysteriously disappeared 17 years ago...

Believe it or not, this pic is based off three different other pictures, all of them relating to the novel "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier.

The main pose is based off a cover for the book, but the portrait of Vivian is based off a photo of Vivien Leigh, who was the wife of Laurence Olivier, the actor who played Maxim De Winter in Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of "Rebecca." Olivier had wanted his wife to play the part of Mrs. De Winter, but Ms. Leigh was all wrong for the part. Generally, people say Vivien was much better suited to play the part of the titular Rebecca, and someone took a photo of Vivien in an orange dress and used it as a reference for Rebecca.

Charlotte's dress, however, is based off a dress Joan Fontaine wears in "Rebecca." With the roses on Fontaine's dress, I realized I could do a flower motif with both Mrs. DeRatrys in this pic, so I added in some orchids in Vivian's portrait (though I didn't do a very good job at making them look like orchids).

What's the significance with these flowers? It all has to do with what they each symbolize, because it gives some pretty important hints about each Mrs. DeRatry. For instance, orchids are exotic, ornamental, and represent love, luxury, beauty, strength, and are associated with fertility. Purple orchids in particular represent royalty, respect, admiration and dignity.

But roses, from what I could find, their meaning always depends on what color (and sometimes what shade) they are. Red roses represent deep emotions, such as love and desire. White roses mean innocence and purity. Yellow roses mean friendship and caring. Pink roses are admiration, joy and gratitude. Orange roses are passion and fascination. Lavender roses say "love at first sight." Blue roses say "I can't have you but I can't stop thinking about you." Green roses (off-white roses with shades of green) can mean either "best wishes for a prosperous new life" or "wishes for recovery of good health."

The fact that Charlotte has all these colors should signify she's got some mixed feelings about her husband. But at least they're mostly positive... except all the roses are sewn to a black dress. An omen for the DeRatrys, perhaps? ^^

Also, I realized after I scanned this in how small Charlotte's eyes are, but I think that works, since she's supposed to be sad and a bit worn out here. Plus, I think Clint's expression in this is hilarious.



Clint/Charlotte/Vivian © me