#O72ca23_Unframed painting “Winged Victory-NIKE”

This one-of-a kind original oil on canvas painting was begun by New Orleans artist Emilie Rhys on Easter Sunday 2023, April 9th, at her French Quarter art studio, and completed a day later. It is an example of "alla prima" painting technique (relatively rare in Rhys' oeuvre) wherein wet paint is applied to previous layers of still-wet paint. Rhys has depicted Nike stepping off a cliff, leading the artist to victory in the studio, saying, "Don't look down, look ahead...Victory is within your grasp!". In Greek mythology Nike (Nicé) was the winged goddess of victory--both in war and in peaceful competition.

The source for this painting of Nike is the 1902 gilded bronze sculpture group by Augustus Saint-Gaudens located at Grand Army Plaza across the street from the Plaza Hotel, Manhattan, NY. The sculptor's model for Nike was an African-American woman named Hettie Anderson, a famed artist's model of the era. He depicted her leading General William Tecumseh Sherman, on horseback, to Victory.