The Painting that Started it All!

People often ask me where I got the idea for The Bookmark. The answer is I owe it all to this painting.

Discovering the Painting

I first discovered this painting at the Moravian Museum where I have worked as a volunteer docent for many years. (Shameless plug: If you haven’t visited you really should--it’s an excellent museum.) One day, I came to work and found a new exhibit with this painting of Lafayette, Mrs. Boeckel, and of course, Liesl.

For me, seeing this painting was a shock. Up until this moment, I didn’t even know that Lafayette had spent time in Bethlehem, much less that a Moravian woman had been his nurse. I am a total Francophile and Lafayette has always been my favorite Frenchman, so learning of the connection between Lafayette and the Moravians was incredible—it was like worlds colliding! And at that moment I knew I had found the story I was meant to tell.

The Artist

The artist, Eleanor Barba, was a student of Walter Emerson Baum, an internationally known watercolorist and respected art educator. In the summer of 1926, Walter was asked to provide art instruction for teachers in the Allentown School District. (Whether Eleanor was a teacher is unknown, but she was definitely one of his students.) His classes became so popular, they were dubbed “The Baum School.” Later on, Walter founded the actual Baum School of Art, which still exists today.

The original painting, completed in 1934, can be viewed at the Moravian Museum in Bethlehem and exemplifies the fascination with Liesl and Lafayette that has continued over the years.

The Interpretation

In The Bookmark, my modern heroine, Abbey Prescott, takes a closer look at each of the individuals in the painting. I’ve given you a blown-up version of the three people, so you can do the same thing. This is what Abbey saw:

“Abbey studied the expressions on the three faces. Lafayette’s gaze, rather than looking out at the viewer, turned toward Liesl, while Mrs. Boeckel’s eyes were downcast as if she were ashamed or refused to see what was right in front of her. Only Liesl stared directly out of the picture at Abbey. A beautiful, confident young woman who looked like she knew exactly what she wanted and wasn’t about to let anybody stand in her way.”

The Chair

Lafayette may have left Liesl with a broken heart, but he also left us with something to remember him by. This chair was discovered in the attic of the Boeckel family home and is believed to be the very one Lafayette sat in while he was recuperating. (If you take another look at the painting, you can see what the chair may have looked like when it was fully intact.) This relic has come to be known as “The Lafayette Chair” and is on display at the Moravian Museum.