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8th March 2024

Covent Garden market was once surrounded by flower girls such as George Bernard Shaw's Shaw's Eliza Doolittle (Pygmalion (1913) and several film versions). This is Kitty of Frying Pan Alley (c1921, Aberdeen Art Gallery) by Oswald Birley - with her basket full of daffodils and anemones. Kitty worked in the East End of London, and the painting caused a furore when people were unable to believe that a 'clear-skinned' and pretty girl could come from such an impoverished background.

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