The "Unflinching" MFK Fisher

"Through her artful essays on food and life, which she first began writing in France in the 1930s, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher transformed the mundane activity of eating into a passion. A unique blend of thoughtful instruction, sense-awakening recipes, and reflections on life's values, Fisher's writing is everywhere informed by her conviction that our basic human needs for love, shelter, and food are indivisibly connected.

Ginny Stanford, a self-taught artist [who just unveiled former First Lady Hillary Clinton's portrait for the National Gallery] was introduced to Fisher in 1991, one year before the writer's death. She sought to paint the image of a courageous older woman "who could look unflinchingly at herself." Her brilliantly colored portrait, painted in the writer's California home, is a testament to Fisher's strength in the face of a string of illnesses, including Parkinson's disease, which eventually stole her voice."

Acrylic and silver leaf on canvas, 1991
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
© Ginny Stanford

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